{"id":64549,"date":"2012-08-24T08:15:33","date_gmt":"2012-08-24T12:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=64549"},"modified":"2012-08-29T14:54:20","modified_gmt":"2012-08-29T18:54:20","slug":"when-fad-diets-fail-lifestyle-modification-clinic-proves-successful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2012\/08\/when-fad-diets-fail-lifestyle-modification-clinic-proves-successful\/","title":{"rendered":"When Fad Diets Fail \u2013 Lifestyle Modification Clinic Proves Successful"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-bottom: 18px;\">[yframe url=&#8217;http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=mOKlPYL6Ddc&amp;feature=youtu.be&#8217;]<\/div>\n<div class=\"pull-right w33\">\n<p><strong>Exercise as Medicine<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Did you know that there&#8217;s a prescription that can help prevent and treat many health problems? Exercise is crucial to the prevention, management, and treatment of numerous chronic conditions. Learn how to boost your energy, reduce or eliminate the need for medication, and control:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Cholesterol levels<\/li>\n<li>Diabetes<\/li>\n<li>Hypertension<\/li>\n<li>Stress<\/li>\n<li>Weight<\/li>\n<li>Depression\/anxiety<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Date:<\/strong> Tuesday, September 25<\/p>\n<p><strong>Time:<\/strong> 7 to 8 p.m.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Location:<\/strong> ARB Building, Large Conference Room, Ground floor (EG013)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Speaker:<\/strong> Bradley Biskup, P.A.-C., Lifestyle Modification Program, Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Lifestyle Modification Clinic at the University of Connecticut Health Center offers patients an alternative to the typical weight loss programs or fad diets.<\/p>\n<p>Marlene Francis said she was considering doing Weight Watchers for the second time when a co-worker told her about the clinic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI decided no, I don\u2019t want to do this anymore. I\u2019m tired of doing the yoyo,\u201d says Francis. \u201cI gained more weight when I went off Weight Watchers. To me, the Lifestyle Modification Clinic is not a fad diet; this is a lifestyle change. It makes you more aware of how your body works and focuses on how you live every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Lifestyle Modification Clinic was started in the spring of 2010 with support from the <a href=\"http:\/\/heart.uchc.edu\/\">Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center<\/a>. The staff consists of cardiologists Joyce Meng, Anjanette Ferris, Peter Schulman, physician assistant <a href=\"http:\/\/heart.uchc.edu\/physicians\/bios\/biskup.html\">Brad Biskup<\/a>, registered nurse Dawn Smith, and exercise physiologist Gina Correa.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt focuses on a niche that doesn\u2019t get covered,\u201d says Biskup. \u201cIt\u2019s about giving patients a place to go where they can take control and it empowers them to find out what their other options are beyond medication.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Patients who are eligible for the Lifestyle Modification Clinic are those with coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease or carotid artery stenosis, history of a stroke, diabetes, hyperlipidemia and hypertension, or who has been a patient at the Cardiology Clinic or Hypertension Clinic within the last three years.<\/p>\n<p>The care at the clinic is very individualized. It is about looking at a patient\u2019s lifestyle, their behaviors and their limitations, and then modifying them.<\/p>\n<p>The initial visit includes reviewing previous lab work and doing a cardiovascular risk assessment. After this, an analysis of the patient\u2019s current diet, as well as exercise routine and history are obtained. This helps to develop the goals and the plan to obtain them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do a lot of education,\u201d says Biskup. \u201cThe more education they get &#8211; the better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Francis says the small, achievable goals and the explanations are a big part of what has helped her stay motivated. Since she started going to the clinic in November 2011, she has lost 50 pounds and her cholesterol levels are less than half of what they had been.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBrad gives you homework assignments and things to look for. He gives you a lot of samples and tools to guide you and help you to succeed. I think that\u2019s what has helped me make a difference in my life,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>The difference between the clinic and fad diets or other programs is the focus on what is important. \u201cIt\u2019s not just about weight. It\u2019s about your cholesterol, blood work, and how your body works. For the first time in a long time my blood work has been normal,\u201d she says. \u201cSeeing the scale is only one difference.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Biskup says the clinic works with patients to find activities that they enjoy doing, as well as finding healthy foods that they already like to eat and incorporating them into daily life. He says they consider a patient\u2019s work schedule, family life, living environment, financial restrictions, pain restrictions, and stress. He adds \u201cto successfully modify behavior, you must first understand the behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He looks at both exercise and activity as ways to being healthy. If you are unable to exercise on a regular basis, the alternative is using a pedometer to obtain a certain number of steps per day. The opportunity to increase activity such as taking the stairs or parking at the far end of the parking lot is also encouraged.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe stigma of exercise is that if you are not sweating and short of breath, you\u2019re not getting any benefit. This couldn\u2019t be further from the truth. The \u201ctalk test\u201d is one of the most reliable markers for appropriate intensity of exercise. If you are short of breath while exercising and can\u2019t say a complete sentence, you are exercising too hard and are increasing your risk of injury, as well as the likelihood that you won\u2019t continue exercising,\u201d says Biskup.<\/p>\n<p>Francis walks three miles every morning before work and challenges her husband and 19- and 16-year-old children to Wii Fit challenges. The family now replaces store-bought salad dressing with homemade salsa and olive oil and uses turkey and chicken in salads instead of lunch meat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeeing how well patients have done is the most rewarding thing for me. Yes, weight loss is great, but seeing them stop medications and still improve their risk factors is testament to their hard work,\u201d says Biskup. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to see the empowerment with a little guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Follow\u00a0the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uchc.edu\">UConn Health Center<\/a> on\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uconnhealthcenter\">Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/uconnhealth\">Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/uconnhealth\">YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIt makes you more aware of how your body works,\u201d says Marlene Francis, who lost 50 pounds and her cholesterol and blood pressure returned to normal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":64563,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1,70],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[45],"class_list":["post-64549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized","category-video"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-17 02:02:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64549"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64723,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64549\/revisions\/64723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/64563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64549"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=64549"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=64549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}