On Your Mark, Get Set, Go! It's Time to Elevate All Six Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine ... Starting With Physical Activity!

摘要

What a perfectly timed issue of the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine (AJLM) with a focus on cardiovascular and exercise topics to welcome in my term as the new President of American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) and reflect on my journey from Exercise Physiology to Cardiology to Lifestyle Medicine. Whereas I suspect many ACLM members come to lifestyle medicine through the perspective of food as medicine, I came to lifestyle medicine through the perspective of exercise as medicine. Before medical school and while a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin Human Performance Lab, my responsibilities included performing peak VO testing on Olympic athletes and staffing one of the earliest cardiac rehabilitation programs by running alongside heart failure patients on the shores of Lake Mendota. While I loved understanding the intricacies of how the human body achieves Olympian-level physical endeavors, it was working with cardiac patients that inspired me toward a clinical career in cardiology and cardiac rehabilitation, and eventually into lifestyle medicine where I developed a deeper understanding of nutritional sciences and the other pillars of lifestyle care.