This comprehensive course teaches the evidence, knowledge and skills to conduct intensive therapeutic lifestyle interventions to better alleviate the many debilitating effects of type 2 diabetes
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (PRWEB)
June 21, 2023
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) has announced a new Type 2 Diabetes Remission Certificate to be awarded to physicians and eligible health professionals that signifies specialized knowledge and competency in evidence-based lifestyle medicine to support the treatment, remission, and prevention of type 2 diabetes and reversal of insulin resistance.
Physicians and eligible health professionals earn the certificate by completing “Remission of Type 2 Diabetes and Reversal of Insulin Resistance with Lifestyle Medicine,” an 18-hour continuing medical education/continuing education (CME/CE) course created by experts and researchers with proven success treating patients with type 2 diabetes using lifestyle medicine. The course discusses the role of nutrition, physical activity, sleep and other essential factors, and reviews the current literature around medication deprescribing for type 2 diabetes remission and reversal of insulin resistance, as well as definitions and success rates.
About 37 million Americans have diabetes and 96 million adults have prediabetes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Type 2 diabetes is expected to increase by 673% in Americans younger than 20 by 2060 at the current trajectory.
“This comprehensive course teaches the evidence, knowledge and skills to conduct intensive therapeutic lifestyle interventions to better alleviate the many debilitating effects of type 2 diabetes,” says ACLM’s Founding President John Kelly, MD, MPH, LM Intensivist, FACLM, and lead faculty instructor for the course. “It is appropriate for the Type 2 Diabetes Remission Certificate to recognize physicians and eligible health professionals for taking the initiative to develop this unique skillset, which will be increasingly valued by both patients and health care employers as the prevalence of type 2 diabetes continues to increase in the U.S. and the world.”
Physicians, certified diabetes care and education specialists, physician associates, nurse practitioners, nurses, registered dietitians and pharmacists are among the health professionals eligible to earn the certificate. Certificate eligibility criteria were determined based on those working in direct patient care related to a diabetes diagnosis.
A certificate badge signifying completion of the course will accompany the names of ACLM members in the organization’s membership directory, as well as in lifestylemedpros.org, ACLM’s searchable online directory where patients can search for and connect with certified clinicians in their areas. More than 700 health professionals have enrolled in the course since it launched in 2020 and those eligible health professionals who have completed the course to date will also receive a certificate.
Lifestyle behavior changes are the first treatment option in type 2 diabetes clinical practice guidelines, but too few clinicians have the education and knowledge to conduct appropriately-dosed and effective lifestyle interventions. A 2022 expert consensus statement published by ACLM, endorsed by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology, supported by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and co-sponsored by the Endocrine Society, concluded that sufficiently intensive lifestyle interventions can produce remission of type 2 diabetes with similar success to bariatric surgery, with substantially fewer side effects. ACLM’s course includes information on how to establish reimbursable intensive therapeutic lifestyle change programs.
“As an endocrinologist, I know first-hand the frustration of treating patients with ongoing and ever-increasing medication management that may slow, but not halt, progression of type 2 diabetes,” said Dr. Mahima Gulati, MD, DipABLM, FACLM, medical director of Lifestyle Medicine at Connecticut’s Middlesex Health Hospital. “I see in my clinical practice type 2 diabetes being diagnosed at younger and younger ages, which has the potential to shorten an affected patient’s life expectancy by years, if not decades. ACLM’s ‘Remission of Type 2 Diabetes and Reversal of Insulin Resistance with Lifestyle Medicine’ course is an in-depth, evidence-based training that equips clinicians with the knowledge and skills to provide patients a safe, effective and affordable treatment to help them treat the root cause of their disease. This option should be available to every person who suffers from type 2 diabetes.”
ABOUT ACLM
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine is the nation’s medical professional society advancing lifestyle medicine as the foundation for a redesigned, value-based and equitable healthcare delivery system, leading to whole-person health. ACLM educates, equips, empowers and supports its members through quality, evidence-based education, certification and research to identify and eradicate the root cause of chronic disease, with a clinical outcome goal of health restoration as opposed to disease management.
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