Applied Lifestyle Medicine to Chronic Disease Management – Lifestyle Medicine in Practice

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Since 2020, I have been working in the NHS as Senior Health & Wellbeing Coach for the EAST PCN (South Warwickshire GP Federation). I have a degree in Nutritional Therapy (West London University), I am a member of BANT (CNHC registered) and I have been studying lifestyle medicine for 20 years. I have a 2 year PgDip in Clinical Psychoneuroimmunology (cPNI) and am currently taking a Masters in cPNI with Pruimboom Institute. I have developed and delivered several lifestyle medicine based programmes for the NHS patients I work with. The programmes are formed by structured group coaching sessions which include education and peer support opportunities. I have developed 3 separate programmes focusing on specific groups of patients: Weight Management Education Programme: 7 group coaching sessions for those who have tried many other approaches in the past and found themselves demotivated with strict dieting, calorie counting etc. Menopause Education Programme: 4 group coaching sessions to explore the influences of lifestyle on hormonal levels, adaptation to the transitions imposed by menopause and optimisation of health whether or not HRT is involved. Finally, the third programme is for Chronic Pain Management: 6 group coaching sessions focusing on self-management and acceptance of pain as the result of multi-factorial influences. This programme was born out of a conversation with a Clinical Pharmacist who expressed difficulty in deprescribing opioids to patients who were unlikely to benefit further. I designed the programme with the view to help patients understand the complexity of pain and the limitations of medication to influence, for example, brain neurocircuits of pain. It gently promotes education and advances understanding towards self-management as an essential aspect of pain management. I have run several groups continuously since 2022 and I have gathered feedback from participants who completed the programmes. I have also worked privately with LM and Nutritional Therapy since 2012, though I have increasingly focused on my role in the NHS in the past few years. I have been deeply motivated by opportunities to educate people on the links between their lifestyle choices and the management of their symptoms. I am also working to develop training courses for NHS staff through my local training hub.

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LM Pillars Covered:	Mental Wellbeing Healthy Relationships Minimising Harmful Substances Physical Activity
Funded?	N/A
Initiative Sector:	NHS
Approving Body:	Business Manager, Primary Care Network

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