• Store
Member Portal

Blog

Cardiometabolic Health
Movement, nature and wellness
Cardiometabolic Health

Helping Your Patients Optimize Exercise for Weight Loss

Discover effective strategies to help your patients achieve sustainable weight loss through exercise, and learn how to help them avoid common pitfalls and bad habits.

Shilpa P. Saxena, MD, IFMCP | June 7, 2023

Cardiometabolic Health
Mitochondria: The Forgotten Cause of Cardiovascular Disease
Cardiometabolic Health

Mitochondria: The Forgotten Cause of Cardiovascular Disease

Mitochondrial dysfunction is associated with the development of some of the most common cardiac conditions we manage as practitioners—atherosclerosis, ischemia-reperfusion injury, hypertension, diabetes, cardiac hypertrophy, heart failure and arrhythmia.

Shilpa P. Saxena, MD, IFMCP | January 18, 2023

Cardiometabolic Health
metabolic-syndrome
Cardiometabolic Health

4 Non-Traditional Warning Signs of Metabolic Syndrome

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of metabolic and cardiovascular (CV) risk factors, including visceral adiposity, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia and hypertension, contributing to CV mortality.

Shilpa P. Saxena, MD, IFMCP | September 6, 2022

Cardiometabolic Health
Blood glucose
Cardiometabolic Health

Blood Sugar Stability: A Key to Longevity

If there is a disease process that best demonstrates the differences between the conventional and integrative approach, it must be type 2 diabetes and its various comorbidities and complications

Shilpa P. Saxena, MD, IFMCP | July 18, 2022

Practice Management
In-clinic supplement dispensary
Practice Management

Elephant in the Room: Stigma Against Offering Supplements

A whole tribe of lifestyle medicine practitioners have been utilizing supplements and know that it has clinical benefits. Benefiting financially is OK as long as you are helping your patient.

Shilpa P. Saxena, MD, IFMCP, Adrian den Boer, ND, DC, IFMCP | May 31, 2022

Cardiometabolic Health
Cardiometabolic Health

Nailing and Scaling the 80/20 Rule in Cardiometabolic Disease Treatment

If you talk to non-clinicians in the health care industry, you might not be surprised to find they are unimpressed with the average clinician’s understanding of business philosophy. Who would blame us clinicians? We focus on patient care, and the most...

Shilpa P. Saxena, MD, IFMCP | February 14, 2022

Cardiometabolic Health
Cardiometabolic Health

Is Your Practice Poised to Be the Future of Medicine?

The triumph of health care will hinge on health professionals reinventing the way in which we work with a patient, with a population, and often overlooked, with each other. We have seen how large conventional multi-disciplinary models are challenged getting to know one patient; conversely, we can admit it is equally challenging for one provider to have all the knowledge needed to provide total care to any one patient or population.

Shilpa P. Saxena, MD, IFMCP | March 16, 2020

Cardiometabolic Health
Cardiometabolic Health

Using Virtual Group Visits to Enhance Patient Success

The American Academy of Family Physicians asserts that group visits are an effective method for enhancing patients' self-care of chronic conditions, increasing patient satisfaction, and improving outcomes. Group visits (AKA shared medical appointments) occur when multiple patients are seen in a group setting for follow-up care or management of chronic conditions (e.g., diabetes group visit). A lifestyle-based group visit, furthermore, incorporates the power of functional and lifestyle medicine into this innovative appointment format.

Shilpa P. Saxena, MD, IFMCP | September 16, 2019

Cardiometabolic Health
Cardiometabolic Health

Cardiometabolic Lifestyle Medicine: Real People with Real Success

While I enjoy writing technical posts, my passion lives with sharing patient stories as clinical education. In our provider world, we call these "case studies," but to me, it's so sterile-sounding. These are real people-parents, siblings, children-unique individuals who all have a life they literally hand to us so it can be optimized and juiced for everything it's worth. So, without further ado, I introduce you to Ken!

Shilpa P. Saxena, MD, IFMCP | August 16, 2017

Cardiometabolic Health
Cardiometabolic Health

The Future of Health is Virtual-Are You Ready?

The coronavirus has skyrocketed the demand for health care while simultaneously amputating its main arm of delivering the care itself. People desperately want to see trained professionals; however, they are equally afraid to see them in-person. And because face-to-face individual appointments had been the comfortable and seemingly secure way of seeing patients pre-COVID-19, many smaller medical offices are suddenly disoriented and struggling to figure out how to pivot to remain solvent these days.

Shilpa P. Saxena, MD, IFMCP | April 16, 2017

Cardiometabolic Health
Cardiometabolic Health

4 Ways to Mitigate Heart DiseaseRisk During COVID-19

Heart disease is still the most significant mortality threat to Americans today. But now, cardiometabolic experts are asking this epigenetic question: How will the dramatic COVID-19-related changes to our daily lifestyles affect our patients' risks for cardiovascular disease?

Shilpa P. Saxena, MD, IFMCP | November 16, 2016

Cardiometabolic Health
Cardiometabolic Health

6 Reasons You're Not Implementing Group Visits (And How to Overcome Them)

Group medical visits, also called shared medical appointments, are provider-patient medical encounters in which a group of people are seen together in a concurrent session. Although the individual face-to-face appointment continues to be the prevailing model of patient care, by default mostly, there is growing evidence that suggests group visits are indeed effective, and furthermore, provide benefits above and beyond an individual encounter.

Shilpa P. Saxena, MD, IFMCP | May 16, 2016

Cardiometabolic Health
Cardiometabolic Health

Statins, Bergamot & Lifestyle Medicine

Statins have been the cornerstone of heart disease prevention in the conventional medical model for a long time. However, there is a growing resistance to using this prescription among patients. More and more, our culture is questioning the slippery use of pharmaceuticals as the panacea for the complex, chronic disease epidemics of our time, and statins are at the forefront of this shift.

Shilpa P. Saxena, MD, IFMCP | December 16, 2015

Cardiometabolic Health
Cardiometabolic Health

The Breakfast of Functional Medicine Champions

When I first began my foray into functional medicine, I was pleasantly surprised to hear of this thing called functional foods. As someone who doesn't like to eat solids for breakfast, who loves the concept of eating but feels it gets in the way of more pressing matters, and who surely needs some daily nutrient therapy for existing and future medical issues, I found functional foods deserved that heavenly operatic "Ahhhhhh" when I began enjoying all the benefits they provided me in my day-to-day life.

Shilpa P. Saxena, MD, IFMCP | November 16, 2014

Cardiometabolic Health
Cardiometabolic Health

Nailing and Scaling the 80/20 Rule in Cardiometabolic Disease Treatment

If you talk to non-clinicians in the health care industry, you may not be surprised to find they are not overly impressed with the average clinician's understanding of business philosophy. Who would blame us clinicians? We focus on patient care, and the most important thing we may learn about the "business" of conventional medicine is how to optimize billing and coding.

Shilpa P. Saxena, MD, IFMCP | October 16, 2013

Cardiometabolic Health
Cardiometabolic Health

Using Community to Motivate Patient Movement

Let's face it. Advising patients to exercise and engage in regular physical activity is a prescriptive no-brainer. The case for movement as medicine continues to solidify as journal after journal elucidates the anti-inflammatory powerhouse that exercise is. Whether for the reduction or reversal of obvious cardiometabolic diseases like diabetes and heart disease or of lesser-known chronic complex conditions like autoimmunity, cancer and dementia, exercise should be a foundational strategy to reduce inflammation and change epigenetic signaling for a healthier future for all patients.

Shilpa P. Saxena, MD, IFMCP | December 16, 2012

Cardiometabolic Health
Cardiometabolic Health

Mapping the Cardiometabolic Patient Journey

Mapping the Cardiometabolic Patient JourneyAs of 2015, the combined prevalence of diabetes and prediabetes was 45.4% among adults in the United States. Approximately 11% have diabetes and 33.9% have prediabetes, representing 84.1 million people who could develop type 2 diabetes within five years, according to the CDC in the 2017 National Diabetes Statistics Report.Read more

Shilpa P. Saxena, MD, IFMCP | July 16, 2012

Cardiometabolic Health
Cardiometabolic Health

3 Steps to Eradicating Cardiometabolic Disease

Cardiovascular and cardiometabolic disease continue to devastate the lives of patients, families, communities and the US healthcare system at large. The sad truth is, a solution already exists. If healthcare systems could figure out how to implement therapeutic lifestyle change, nearly 80% of the world's medical problems would either be prevented or reversed. Over the last 10 years, I have seen this solution play out in my office and other Functional and Integrative offices around the world. So, why isn't this already happening? Three things: 1) Provider training, 2) Patient engagement, and 3) Cost. Read more

Shilpa P. Saxena, MD, IFMCP | July 16, 2011

Cardiometabolic Health
Cardiometabolic Health

Clinical, Operational and Financial Benefits of Group Visits

Statistics continue to highlight the snowballing burden of complex, chronic disease as the 'Achilles heel' of our healthcare system's future. More and more healthcare providers are realizing that the most effective solution is centered around lifestyle change and behavior modification. Unfortunately, implementation of successful lifestyle modification amongst a population of patients overseen by trained clinicians in supportive institutions has been problematic in the typical medical office, to say the least. Fortunately, a progressive form of relief called lifestyle-based group visits (LBGV) is positioned to rescue the time-starved, well-intentioned clinician. Read more

Shilpa P. Saxena, MD, IFMCP | August 16, 2010

Gastrointestinal Health
Gastrointestinal Health

Managing a Stressed Practice

The term "stress," as it is currently used, was coined by Hans Selye in 1936 who defined it as "the non-specific response of the body to any demand for change." Selye's theories attracted considerable attention in basic medical sciences; however, stress soon became a popular buzzword that completely ignored Selye's original definition, even until today. Some people used the word to describe a known unpleasant trigger or situation to which they were subjected. For others, stress was their reaction to this in the form of physical or emotional symptoms. Read more.

Shilpa P. Saxena, MD, IFMCP | November 16, 2009

Looking for More?

 
LMRC Logo
linkedin-icon linkedin-icon linkedin-icon CONNECT WITH US
1991 Duncan Place, Woodstock, IL 60098
1 (855) 771-5672 | Fax: 1 (800) 476-4664
1991 Duncan Place, Woodstock, IL 60098 1.800.332.2351 | Fax: 1.800.476.4664 [email protected]

©Lifestyle Matrix Resource Center 2021