ST. LOUIS (PRWEB)
April 22, 2022

The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM), the medical professional society that has championed food as medicine since its inception in 2004, today announced the availability of the fourth installment of its “Food as Medicine” course series, titled “Food as Medicine: Preconception, Pregnancy and Postpartum.” The CME- and CE-accredited course is designed around the importance of nutrition in preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum health for the mother, child, and family.

Lead faculty for this third course installment are: Nancy Eriksen, MD, FACOG, DipABLM, for preconception and pregnancy nutrition; and Kristi R. VanWinden, MD, FACOG, DipABLM, for postpartum nutrition.

Although nutrition plays a significant role in maternal and fetal health before and throughout pregnancy, its role is often marginalized. This course will explore the importance of nutrition in preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum health for the mother, child, and family. Participants will understand how nutrition may be linked to adverse pregnancy outcomes such as gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, low birth weight and preterm deliveries. The link between nutrition and developmental origins of health and disease will also be discussed. Clinical tools and resources will be shared to assist participants with supporting patients to improve their nutrition status prior to conception, throughout pregnancy, and postpartum.

“Food as Medicine: Preconception, Pregnancy and Postpartum” consists of three lectures and three hours of content. The course will:

• Review current nutrition therapy practices for preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum
• Describe evidence for nutrition therapy during preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum
• Apply nutrition guidelines during preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum
• Demonstrate application of food as medicine during preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum

The course is targeted to a variety of clinicians with an interest in food as medicine: physicians, registered nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, registered dietitians, physical therapists, occupational therapists, pharmacists, other health professionals working with chronic disease prevention or treatment, certified health coaches and clinicians in training.

Learn more and register for the course here.

The first installment of ACLM’s “Food as Medicine” course, “Food as Medicine: Nutrition for Prevention and Longevity,” launched in March 2021 and provides three hours of CME- and CE- accredited content on the dietary patterns shown to prevent chronic disease and support longevity. Lead faculty for the first installment is Kayli Anderson, MS, RDN, ACSM-EP, DipACLM.

The second installment of the course, “Food as Medicine: Nutrition for Disease Treatment and Risk Reduction,” launched in May 2021 and provides 1.5 hours of CME- and CE- accredited content on the scientific evidence for food groups and dietary patterns in treatment and risk reduction of common lifestyle-related conditions. Lead faculty for the second course installment is Michelle McMacken, MD, DipABLM, Associate Professor of Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

The third installment of the course, “Food as Medicine: Calorie Density–A Simple Yet Powerful Concept,” launched in August 2021 and provides 1.25 hours of accredited content on healthful eating as an approach to help prevent, treat and mitigate many chronic diseases. Lead faculty for this third course installment is Anthony Lim, MD, JD, DipABLM, medical director of the McDougall Program and lecturer at Kaiser Permanente Medical Group in Santa Rosa, CA.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation identified in its 2019 Global Burden of Disease report that the leading cause of disease and death is a result of what we are, and are not, eating. Yet most physicians and medical professionals receive few hours of clinical nutrition education throughout their formal training. ACLM is committed to filling this void, supporting healthcare providers in their ability to prescribe food as medicine, empowering patients to make the evidence-based dietary lifestyle changes needed to protect health and fight disease, with health restoration as the clinical outcome goal.

The limited nutrition education customarily offered in medical and health professional programs is often didactic and focused on the biochemistry of nutrients and health consequences of deficiency states—content that is of limited use in a clinical setting where the majority of the population faces over-nutrition due to high intake of ultra-processed, calorie-dense, high saturated fat-laden foods.

“This course addresses a critical gap in standard medical education, examining how nutrition science can be applied to women’s health during the reproductive years,” said ACLM President Cate Collings, MD, MS, FACC, DipABLM. “This knowledge can maximize the health of women before, during, after, and in between pregnancies in order to improve long-term health outcomes for themselves and their children.”

“If you care for reproductive-age women, this course is for you,” said ACLM Board Member Michelle Tollefson, MD, FACOG, DipABLM, FACLM, who founded and co-chairs ACLM’s 330-member Women’s Health Member Interest Group. “If we want to address the maternal morbidity and mortality crisis in America, we must prioritize nutrition for reproductive-age women prior to and throughout pregnancy.”

ABOUT THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF LIFESTYLE MEDICINE: ACLM is the nation’s medical professional society dedicated to the advancement and clinical practice of lifestyle medicine as the foundation of a transformed and sustainable health care system. Lifestyle medicine is the use of evidence-based lifestyle therapeutic intervention—including a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and positive social connection—as a primary modality, delivered by clinicians trained and certified in this specialty, to prevent, treat, and often reverse chronic disease.

More than a professional association, ACLM is a galvanized force for change. ACLM addresses the need for quality education and certification, supporting its members in their individual practices and in their collective mission to promote lifestyle medicine as the first treatment option, as opposed to a first option of treating symptoms and consequences with expensive, ever-increasing quantities of pills and procedures. ACLM members are united in their desire to identify and eradicate the root cause of disease. Learn more at http://www.lifestylemedicine.org.

Designation Statement:

Rush University Medical Center designates this internet enduring material for a maximum of 3.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

This activity is being presented without bias and without commercial support.

Rush University Medical Center designates this internet enduring material activity for a maximum of 3.0 nursing contact hour(s).

Rush University Medical Center designates this knowledge-based internet enduring material activity for a maximum of 3.0 contact hour(s) for pharmacists.

Rush University Medical Center designates this activity for 3.0 CE credits in psychology.

Rush University is an approved provider for physical therapy (216.000272), occupational therapy, respiratory therapy, social work (159.001203), nutrition, speech-audiology, and psychology by the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation. Rush University designates this internet enduring material for a maximum of 3.0 continuing education credits for physical therapists, occupational therapists, respiratory therapists, social workers, nutritionists, speech pathologists, audiologists, and/or psychologists.

Successful completion of this CME activity, which includes participation in the evaluation component, enables the participant to earn up to 3.0 MOC points in the American Board of Internal Medicine’s (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program. Participants will earn MOC points equivalent to the amount of CME credits claimed for the activity. It is the CME activity provider’s responsibility to submit participation completion information to ACCME for the purpose of granting ABIM MOC credit.

The AAFP has reviewed Food as Medicine: Preconception, Pregnancy and Postpartum and deemed it acceptable for up to 3.00 Enduring Materials, Self-Study AAFP Prescribed credits. Term of Approval is from 04/11/2022 to 04/11/2023. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

The American Board of Lifestyle Medicine has approved 3.0 maintenance of certification credits for this learning activity.

The National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching (NBHWC) has approved 3.00 continuing education credits for this learning activity: CEA-000043-1.