206: The Rise of Lifestyle Medicine and Its Impact on Modern Practice with Dr. Iris Schrijver

“If we are serious about this quintuple aim, this lofty goal of improved health outcomes at lower cost with better experiences for our patients, all of that in an environment of equity and physician wellbeing, then we really need a shift in health and healthcare. Because what I see is that patients are disenchanted with healthcare. They don't feel that their physicians have time for them. They don't feel heard. And I see physicians leaving healthcare because the system is really not conducive to either group.”
- Dr. Iris Schrijver 

Dr. Iris Schrijver is a certified lifestyle medicine physician who also specializes in clinical pathology and molecular genetics. She's an adjunct clinical professor of pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine and a past president of the Association for Molecular Pathology. Dr. Schrijver has served as the medical director for a volunteers in medicine organization because she believes that health care is a basic human right. Together with her husband, an astrophysicist, she wrote Living with the Stars, a popular science book about connections between the human body and the universe. And more recently, she has written On the Path to Health, Wellbeing and Fulfillment.

Originally from the Netherlands, Dr. Schrijver eventually landed at Stanford to be trained in clinical molecular genetics and clinical pathology, or laboratory medicine. She then became a faculty member in the pathology department where her main purpose was to direct the diagnostic molecular genetic pathology lab. After a long and rewarding career there, she and her husband made a joint decision to step away and pursue new adventures. They moved from California to Oregon where Dr. Schrijver became involved in a free clinic and ultimately became its medical director. She also discovered lifestyle medicine and was so impressed with its urgency and the science behind it that it inspired her to become certified in it herself. Her experience also inspired her to write her latest book.

Dr. Schrijver shares just how important lifestyle medicine is and that it has a solid base in science. She explains the six pillars of health, well-being, and fulfillment and what they mean for both physicians and their patients. We discuss how to sift through all of the information that is out there and how small shifts add up to big, lasting changes. It can be challenging for physicians to “walk the walk” when it comes to lifestyle medicine, and Dr. Schrijver offers her advice. She also shares practical ways for physicians to integrate lifestyle medicine principles into their daily practice.

What’s Inside:

• How Dr. Schrijver became involved in lifestyle medicine.
• The six pillars of health, well-being, and fulfillment.
• How to integrate lifestyle medicine into your personal life and professional practice.

Mentioned In This Episode:

• DocWorking.com
• American College of Lifestyle Medicine
• LifestyleForHealthandWellness.com
• IrisMD@Stanford.edu
• On the Path to Health, Wellbeing, and Fulfilment: To Your Health

Find full transcripts of DocWorking: The Whole Physician Podcast episodes on the DocWorking Blog

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