WCM-Q leads global push to use lifestyle medicine for diseases treatment
The 60-hour Certificate course provides experts with the skills and knowledge to prevent and treat serious illnesses such as obesity and heart disease
Tribune News Network1
WEILL Cornell Medicineatar (WCM- ) is now one of the leaders of a global movement towards lifestyle medicine, thanks to a groundbreaking certificate programme developed by the college’s Institute for Population Health.
The 60-hour Certificate in Lifestyle Medicine programme provides healthcare professionals with the skills and knowledge to use lifestyle medicine approaches such as eating a healthy, balanced diet, regular physical exercise and tobacco cessation to prevent and treat serious diseases like obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer and diabetes.
The latest edition of the certificate programme concluded recently attracted record numbers of participants, thanks in part to it being offered fully online for the first time, owing to the ongoing CO ID-19 pandemic. In addition to providing guidance on nutrition, exercise and substance misuse, the programme also explains the benefits of healthy sleeping habits, social connectedness and stress management.
The programme is part of a wider drive by the Institute for Population Health at WCM- to help promote a global trend towards the integration of lifestyle medicine approaches into conventional health care, which has typically emphasised treatment of disease by means of drug therapies and surgery.
Dr Ravinder Mamtani, vice-dean for Student Affairs-Admissions, Population Health and Lifestyle Medicine, said “Despite the devastating impact of CO ID-19,
the leading causes of long-term illness and premature death remain non-communicable diseases like heart disease, diabetes and cancer. A wealth of scientific evidence shows us that these diseases can be very effectively treated, prevented and sometimes even reversed using lifestyle medicine approaches. Healthcare systems across the world are beginning to embrace lifestyle medicine approaches and we at the IPH are working hard to support this global movement.”
Dr Ahmad Al Mulla, advisor to Minister of Public Health and senior consultant Public Health and Disease Control, who delivered a lecture of tobacco cessation at the latest edition of the Certificate in Lifestyle Medicine, said “atar is dedicated to empowering both healthcare professionals and the general population in
atar and across the MENA region to use lifestyle medicine approaches to improve human health. The Certificate in Lifestyle Medicine of WCMhas been extremely successful as a means of supporting local healthcare professionals to follow the best evidence-based practices to make lifestyle medicine interventions as effective as possible.”
Dr Mulla added that there is growing public appetite in
atar for lifestyle medicine approaches.
“We now have record numbers of people voluntarily attending our tobacco cessation clinics,” he said. “It is extremely encouraging to see so many people embracing healthy lifestyles to protect their own health and that of their families.”
The certificate programme has also been designed to support the public health goals set out in atar National ision 2030 and atar’s National Health Strategy 2018-2022, put forward by the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH).
Commenting on the relevance of the certificate, Dr Sohaila Cheema, assistant dean for the Institute for Population Health, said “Lifestyle medicine is a powerful tool for preventing and treating disease and we feel strongly that we have a moral obligation to help lead its promotion locally, regionally and globally. We at Cornell are at the forefront of this movement.”