First Line Therapy for Therapeutic Lifestyle Change: helps in weight reduction, hypertension therapy, diabetic therapy and cholesterol reduction therapy
First Line Therapy: FLT
Therapeutic Lifestyle Change: TLC
This program is designed to facilitate life style changes that will result in:
- Improved health: TLC’s restore or significantly improve biochemical and physical function in a wide variety of conditions ranging from specific chronic health concerns to general suboptimal health
- A reduction in the symptoms of chronic illness: With improved physical function comes the elimination of symptoms across a broad spectrum of health issues.
- A reduced reliance on medication: Many patients are able to reduce or eliminate medications for Diabetes, elevated cholesterol, hypertension and pain.
- Reduction in the chance of developing a chronic disease: body fat reduction, blood pressure reduction, improvement in blood sugar and fat metabolism is associated with a reduction in the incidence of development of chronic diseases.
Timeliness: TLC’s frequently produce rapid results. The response range varies with some patients experiencing a difference in only a few weeks, while improvements in others are achieved in about 12 weeks.
Naturally Safe: TLC’s are a natural approach, free of pharmaceutical side effects so commonly experienced with traditional medical therapies.
Less Expensive: TLC’s are often less expensive in treating chronic disease in the short term and can save significantly on medical expenses in the long term.
Many of the most important national health organizations recommend therapeutic lifestyle change as a “first line” treatment for chronic diseases:
“National clinical guidelines have promulgated therapeutic lifestyle changes as a standard of care in the management of risk factors (for coronary heart disease)…the findings clearly show that many patients can achieve goal levels without medications within 12 weeks…therapeutic lifestyle changes can generally be implemented less expensively than most medications and, unlike single drug therapy, favorably impacts multiple cardiovascular disease risk factors.”
—-American Journal of Cardiology 2004; 94:1558-1561
The Program:
- Initial referral from your physician
- A comprehensive consultation with our health educator helps you develop a sensible, personalized plan created to meet your unique health requirements.
- You are then guided through the plan so that it is easy to follow and is medically –supervised every step of the way
- Your success is measured through informative follow-up assessments where any needed program adjustments can be made.
This is a twelve-week program. There are 6 visits with the health educator and two visits with your physician/nurse practitioner. These visits are covered by your health insurance.
During the program you will work on diet, exercise and stress reduction issues. The diet is a modified Mediterranean diet designed to meet your needs and tastes. You will use a medical food product and nutritional supplements that are recommended by your physician. The costs of these products are not covered by insurance but should be covered by a medical savings/spending account. Since they are medically recommended, the cost of these products can be applied to medical expense tax deduction when appropriate. At the end of the 12-week period you can continue follow up with your health educator at an interval that is appropriate for you and supportive of your needs. We will provide group visits to continue the educational process and provide support for success.
What can you expect?
People who participated in this program had an average of 13 pounds of weight loss during the 12-week period. There was a 35% reduction in triglycerides, a 16% reduction in cholesterol, a 7% increase in HDL (the good cholesterol transport protein) and a 5% reduction in blood pressure.
This cumulative benefit was greater than could be produced by individual diabetic, anti-hypertensive or cholesterol lowering meds alone. Continued adherence to the program resulted in further benefits over time. Front line therapy/therapeutic lifestyle change represents real progress in the ability to improve our health, reduce our chance of developing a chronic illness and reduce our dependence on medications. Please consider this program. It will change your life.