The Building Healthy Lifestyles Conference: Modifying Lifestyles to Enhance Physical Activity, Diet, and Reduce Cardiovascular Disease

Dietary Polyphenols-Important Non-Nutrients in the Prevention of Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases. A Systematic Review

The improvement of the social and economic conditions of society has eliminated the threat of death from the majority of infectious diseases. However, the rapid progress of civilization has created new possibilities for the appearance of factors with adverse effects for the health of society. This has led to increased morbidity from certain diseases, the presence of which had not been observed several centuries ago. Chronic noncommunicable diseases (e.g., cancers, cardio-vascular disorders, diabetes, obesity, neurodegenerative diseases) result from an inappropriate relationship between people and their environment. The common characteristic for all chronic diseases is a “new” form of inflammation, very often called metaflammation, which is considered as a subclinical, permanent inflammation. As a result, metabolic cascade, including cellular oxidative stress, atherosclerotic process, and insulin resistance, occurs, which slowly generates significant deterioration in the organism. Polyphenols are the major group of non-nutrients, considering their diversity, food occurrence, and biological properties. The current review aims to present a wide spectrum of literature data, including the molecular mechanism of their activity and experimental model used, and summarize the recent findings on the multitude of physiological effects of dietary polyphenols towards the prevention of several chronic diseases. However, despite several studies, the estimation of their dietary intake is troublesome and inconclusive, which will be also discussed.

The impact of lifestyle medicine continuing education on provider knowledge, attitudes, and counseling behaviors

BACKGROUND

There is a need for effective continuing medical education (CME) programs to increase healthcare providers' knowledge and skills in lifestyle medicine so that healthcare providers are better equipped to assist patients in adopting and maintaining healthier lifestyle behaviors.

AIMS

To evaluate the impact of five live face-to-face CME programs in lifestyle medicine on providers' barriers, knowledge, confidence, and professional counseling behaviors.

METHODS

200 participants completed researcher-generated surveys before and 90 days after each CME program. Paired t-tests measured significant changes for all outcome variables, and regression analyses assessed predictors of these changes.

RESULTS

Barriers that were targeted during the programs, i.e. lack of knowledge/skills, lack of materials, and perceived poor patient compliance showed highly significant improvement. Participants also reported significant changes in knowledge, confidence, and counseling behaviors in the areas of exercise and stress management. Some improvements occurred in areas that the CME programs did not target as much, i.e. nutrition, smoking, and weight management. The greatest predictor of change was the baseline level of scores. Those participants who could most benefit from change did show the largest improvements.

CONCLUSIONS

Live CME programs can be effective in educating healthcare providers about topics within the rapidly expanding field of lifestyle medicine.