The Whole Health Cure

Latest Episodes:

"Functional Longevity" with Karen Owoc Jul 28, 2022

Show notes

Karen Owoc, ACSM-CEP, ACSM-CET is a clinical exercise physiologist in cardiopulmonary rehabilitation at the Palo Alto VA Medical Center and works privately as a medical fitness trainer and plant-based nutrition consultant.She is also a speaker on lifestyle medicine and has been the weekly TV health expert on KRON 4 news in San Francisco for the past 4-1/2 years, speaking on all aspects of health in over 200 television interviews. Certified by the American College of Sports Medicine, Karen focuses on the fascinating findings of human longevity and the centenarian lifestyle.

Because of her love for sports and family history of early-onset heart disease, Karen focused on a career path where food and exercise are used to treat, manage, and prevent disease. She just released her first book on functional longevity, “Athletes in Aprons: The Nutrition Playbook to Break 100” and also posts on her lifestyle blog, karenowoc.com.

To learn more about Karen's work:

Website: https://karenowoc.com (currently under maintenance)

Book: https://amazon.com/author/break100

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karenowoc/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KarenOwoc/

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenowoc/

This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visit

https://bit.ly/EmoryLM

"Lifestyle Medicine and Cancer" with Amber Orman, MD Jul 08, 2022

Show notes

Amber Orman, MD, DipABLM is a double board-certified radiation oncologist and lifestyle medicine specialist focusing on breast cancer treatment and prevention. She is the Chief Wellness Office (CWO) of AdventHealth Medical Group. She is also the co-founder of the HEAL (Healthy Eating and Active Lifestyle) program at AdventHealth in Orlando, Florida. HEAL is an 8 week lifestyle medicine program designed to educate and inspire cancer patients to make positive changes to decrease cancer recurrence and improve overall healthspan. She is a mother to 3 teenagers and 2 poodles, wife to a witty nephrologist, and spends her free time trail running, lifting, rowing, cycling, and summiting Colorado’s peaks.

To learn more you can access this ACLM video about HEAL and accompanying article:

Video: https://youtu.be/BQAD95TqhD0

Article: How a commitment to lifestyle changes helped one woman face cancer | by American College of Lifestyle Medicine | Feb, 2022 | Medium

Website and Signup for HEAL: Breast (currently available in Florida):

HEAL: Breast Cancer | AdventHealth Cancer Institute

This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visit

https://bit.ly/EmoryLM

"Atrial Fibrillation and Lifestyle Medicine" with Jennifer Shalz, MD Jun 17, 2022

Show notes

Jennifer Shalz, MD is an internal medicine physician who is the medical director of the St. Luke’s Health System Department of Lifestyle Medicine. She develops and directs programs that use lifestyle interventions to help prevent, treat, and reverse chronic disease. Currently these programs include Cardiac, Peripheral Vascular Disease and Pulmonary Rehab; Nicotine Dependence Treatment; the St. Luke’s Lifestyle Medicine Clinic at the South Meridian YMCA; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia; and the St. Luke’s Complete Health Improvement Program. She is a diplomate of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine. She earned her medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine and completed her internal medicine residency at David Grant Medical Center, Travis Air Force Base, CA. She practiced at three different VA Medical Centers after separating as a major from the USAF in 2000. Immediately prior to joining St. Luke’s in 2011, she served as a hospice medical director and provided supportive oncology care in the radiation oncology clinic at St. Alphonsus Cancer Care Center.

To learn more:

Lifestyle Medicine at St. Luke's (stlukesonline.org)

This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visit

https://bit.ly/EmoryLM

"Nutrition and the Metabolic Syndrome" with Tom Rifai, MD May 27, 2022

Show notes

Dr. Tom Rifai's lifestyle medicine and health transformation expertise is rooted in a rare combination of training and practice in psychology, internal medicine, lifestyle medicine and clinical nutrition.

He has a notable and strong family history of type 2 diabetes in both parents, a toxic, genetic form of cholesterol and has had the challenge of binge eating disorder, which brought him to the brink of death in 2007 and took his youngest brother’s life in 2017.

Now, in recovery, he has gathered over 20,000 hours of clinical experience leading and building multidisciplinary lifestyle intervention programs, working with thousands of patients. From his depth of professional and personal experiences, the Flex5™ Lifestyle Change System was born.

He authored and co-directs Harvard's online Lifestyle Medicine professional CME course, Nutrition and the Metabolic Syndrome, and is a co-host of the True Health Revealed podcast, supported by the non-profit True Health Initiative.

Past accolades include being president of the National Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists, Regional Medical Director of Metabolic Health for the Henry Ford Health System, Associate Medical Director of the world renowned Pritikin Longevity Center and a founding Pritikin Intensive Cardiac Rehabilitation program educator, a Medicare approved program for heart disease reversal.

Rifai is now the Medical & Wellness Director for Magna International and CEO of digital health company Reality Meets Science.

Both companies are working together to bring the FlexMD Lifestyle Transformation app and digital platform to market next year.

And Dr Rifai‘s upcoming book, “The Flex5: Your 5 Keys to Get Lean, Reverse Disease and Forever Health” also promises to hit bookshelves next year.

To learn more:

This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visit

https://bit.ly/EmoryLM

"Trauma-Informed Care" with Michelle Thompson, DO May 20, 2022

Show notes

Michelle Thompson, DO is a Lifestyle, Integrative, & Mind-Body Medicine Practitioner and Integrative Wellness & Culinary Medicine Maven.

Born and raised in the Shenango Valley, Dr. Thompson has developed a Free Healthy Living Series, where she lectures and provides experiential opportunities to anyone in the community seeking knowledge in integrative modalities. Her programs are eligible to receive credit toward insurance deductible by showing the participant has "taken a healthy step." She has taken her unique medicine approach out of the office to share in efforts to reach more people, designing programs with no financial, physical, age, or gender barriers. By collaborating with fellow practitioners, community members have experienced yoga with live acoustic guitar, aromatherapy, sound therapy with crystal singing bowls, flutes, gongs, didgeridoo, art therapy, reiki, tai chi, qigong, energy modalities, dancing mindfulness, breath work, guided imagery, kids yoga, meditation, nutrition, and lifestyle modalities all free of charge.

She has been active in teaching the whole food plant based diet to people in her community, creating cooking programs with a local chef and dietician, for eating to reverse disease. By promoting "Doctors in the Kitchen-Food is Medicine," an approved continuing medical education event, she hopes her peers will implement the changes they learn into the way they practice medicine and will become models of health and healing for their patients.

Currently, Dr. Thompson is employed by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and has a full-time integrative family medicine practice, seeing infants through the end of life using a natural approach to health care. Her specialty is reversing disease through diet, exercise, and lifestyle changes while empowering her patients to take charge of their health and work as a team with their physician. There are healing powers of proper nutrition in almost all disease processes, and she believes that eating for health can be pleasurable if we eat in a way that serves our body.

Links for further learning:

https://www.wholeheartedmedicine.org

https://www.bewelltherapies.org/

https://cmbm.org/

This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visit

https://bit.ly/EmoryLM

"Intensive Therapeutic Intervention for Disease Reversal" with Padmaja Patel, MD May 09, 2022

Show notes

For nearly two decades, Padmaja Patel, MD, DipABLM, has been a practicing internist in Midland, TX. She currently serves as the Medical Director of the Lifestyle Medicine Center at Midland Health and has advocated for offering a variety of comprehensive lifestyle intervention programs under physician supervision.

Dr. Patel serves on the Board of American College of Lifestyle Medicine and as Vice President of the Midland Quality Alliance, a clinically integrated network of physicians. She is a member of the National Quality Forum's 2021 Leadership Consortium and a founding member of the advisory board of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine's Health Systems Council. She also serves as the Chair of the Patient Care Subcommittee of ACLM's Health Systems Council and ACLM's Clinical Practice and Quality Advisory Panel.

Dr. Patel has been awarded the prestigious status of Fellow of ACLM for her outstanding achievement in the field of Lifestyle Medicine. She co-founded Healthy City, a non-profit organization, to raise awareness of the benefits of plant-based nutrition within her community.

To learn more, visit the following links:

This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visit

https://bit.ly/EmoryLM

"Plant-Based Prescription for Digestive Health" with Will Bulsiewicz, MD Apr 28, 2022

Show notes

Dr. Will Bulsiewicz (or "Dr. B") is an award winning gastroenterologist, internationally recognized gut health expert and the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, USA Today, and Indie Bound-bestselling author of Fiber Fueled and The Fiber Fueled Cookbook.

With a passion for plants and helping people, he sits on the Scientific Advisory Board and is the U.S. Medical Director of ZOE, has authored more than twenty articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, has given more than forty presentations at national meetings, presented to Congress and the USDA, and has taught over 10,000 students how to heal and optimize their gut health.

He completed a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University, a medical degree from Georgetown University, and a master's in clinical investigation from Northwestern University. Dr. B was the chief medical resident at Northwestern and the chief gastroenterology fellow at The University of North Carolina, and received the highest award given by both his residency and fellowship. He completed an epidemiology fellowship on a grant from the National Institutes of Health at UNC's prestigious Gillings School of Global Public Health.

He lives in Charleston, South Carolina with his wife and children. You’ll find him on Instagram as @theguthealthmd , on Facebook as @theguthealthmd , and at his website theplantfedgut.com.

To learn more and connect:

This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visit

https://bit.ly/EmoryLM

"Mental Health and Children" with Hansa Bhargava, MD Apr 22, 2022

Show notes

Hansa Bhargava, MD, FAAP is Chief Medical Officer at Medscape Education. Her leadership includes an eye to innovation and cutting-edge topics in health care. She has practiced for over 10 years as a clinician and was previously Senior Medical Director At WebMD. She has extensive experience in producing digital content, collaborating in partnerships, and in thought leadership.

Her previous position included working closely with the editorial, product, and news teams and developing digital apps. With expertise in parenting, mental health, and pregnancy, she has helped develop products such as the WebMD Baby App and WebMD Pregnancy App and has published on digitally monitoring pregnancy and outcomes. Her partnership efforts have included those with the University of Alabama, Jed Foundation, CDC, the White House, and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). She represents Medscape and WebMD in media including CNN, HLN, Politico, NPR, Vice, and WSJ Radio and writes regularly for Forbes. Bhargava has participated in conferences, doing keynotes/talks at meetings such as Peds2040, GaTech Innovation Day, Exponential Medicine, and the FDA. She has moderated discussions at UNICEF, Emory Global Health Institute, and Health Connect South. In 2012, she served as an expert panelist with first lady Michelle Obama at the WebMD/Let's Move Town Hall in Miami.

Outside of WebMD, Bhargava has worked with the AAP nationally and locally. She is an elected executive member of the AAP Committee on Communications and Media. She was previously on the advisory board for UNICEF and is currently is on the Global Council for Emory University Global Health Institute and on the advisory board for CWC.

A graduate of the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, she completed her residency at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. She is board certified in pediatrics. She lives in Atlanta and has two children.

Check out Dr. Bhargava's recent book Building Healthier Kids: Stress-Busting Tools for Parents

This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visit

https://bit.ly/EmoryLM

"Heart Disease Risk and Plant-Based Diet" with Brian Asbill, MD Apr 14, 2022

Show notes

Brian Asbill, MD is originally from Columbia, SC. He graduated cum laude from Davidson College in 1990 with a BS (Biology major), and received the MD degree from the Medical University of SC (valedictorian) in 1994. Dr. Asbill completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine (and met his wife) at University of Virginia in 1997, completed his cardiology fellowship training at MUSC in 2001 and subsequently joined Asheville Cardiology Associates where he served as an invasive, non-interventional cardiologist until 2020.

While working at ACA, he additionally completed board certification in clinical lipidology in 2008, received his certificate in plant-based nutrition from eCornell in 2013 and completed board certification in lifestyle medicine in 2017.

Dr. Asbill co-founded Ruckus Health in 2020 whose vision it is to support people holistically in uncovering their innate ability to live in physical, mental, emotional and spiritual balance. Also serves as the medical director of the cardiac rehab program for Mission Health and the medical director for the Plantstrong immersion programs.

Dr. Asbill is married with two boys, ages 20 and 16. Enjoys cooking (and eating), reading, hiking and spending as much time outside as possible.

Currently he serves as the medical director of the cardiac rehabilitation program for Mission Health and has also co-founded Ruckus Health whose vision is “To support people holistically in uncovering their innate ability to live in emotional, mental, physical and spiritual balance.”

Dr. Asbill is a return guest (first appearance Episode 45, where we talked about reversal of cardiovascular disease). Today we talk about heart health risk and plant-based diet. First, what are the assessment methods of heart health and heart disease risks? Dr. Asbill talks about the ASCVD and MESA scores, their reliability and value. We discuss the role of statins, and how they compare to dietary interventions such as switching to plant-based diet. Dr. Asbill explains calcium scores, cholesterol and other measure of heart health. We also discuss the role of exercise and the impact of stress. Tune in to learn more!

Links to explore:

ruckus health
Previous Episode of The Whole Health Cure: Episode 45
Mission Health Website
Plant-Based Prevention of Disease
Plantstrong Podcast

This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visit

https://bit.ly/EmoryLM

"Nature vs Nurture and Decoding Your Child" with Danielle Dick, PhD Apr 08, 2022

Show notes

Danielle Dick, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychology and Genetics. She is an internationally recognized and award-winning expert on genetic and environmental influences on human behavior. She has led and contributed to more than 20 grants from the National Institutes of Health, with grant funding totaling over 30 million dollars. She has more than 350 peer-reviewed publications in the areas of child development, addiction, mental health, genetics, and human behavior, and has won numerous national and international awards for her work. She has been named one of the most highly cited researchers in the world. Danielle is an author of THE CHILD CODE.

In this conversation Danielle talks about how our genes and environment can influence our health and behavior. We talk about things like substance abuse, eating disorder, depression and other psychiatric conditions - is it individual's fault? Danielle says that "our brains are all wired very differently on the inside". When talking about addiction, Danielle explains that, interestingly, how our brains process reward appears to be more important than predisposition to specific substance. Emotion regulation is another big factor that influences addictive behaviors. We discuss anxiety, the role it plays, and the evolutionary advantage it was born from. Danielle concludes that genetic code we are born with is important, but it does not mean we are destined to have problems. Environment plays an important role and can make a huge difference. Finally, we discuss how this science translates in child care and parenting. Understanding your child's disposition is key for applying appropriate parenting strategies and nurturing a healthy family environment. Tune in to learn more!

To learn more about Danielle's work:

Website: DanielleDick.com

Book: TheChildCode.com

Social Media: @DrDanielleDick on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn

This podcast is brought to you by Emory Lifestyle Medicine & Wellness. To learn more about our work, please visit

https://bit.ly/EmoryLM