Taking Back Control: Lifestyle Medicine Through the Cancer Journey

About this episode

This episode discusses how lifestyle medicine can empower cancer patients and explores the links between lifestyle factors and cancer risk.

Welcome to another episode of Flip Your Script, a vodcast by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, hosted by ACLM President Dr. Padmaja Patel. In each episode, we explore five key takeaways on how lifestyle medicine is helping clinicians and leaders reimagine the future of healthcare. This episode, "Taking Back Control: Lifestyle Medicine Through the Cancer Journey" features Dr. Amy Commander, a breast oncologist and Medical Director at Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute, and Dr. Urvi Shah, a hematologist-oncologist and physician-scientist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Both leaders share their unique paths to lifestyle medicine—from Dr. Commander’s marathon-running inspiration to Dr. Shah’s personal battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma—and how those experiences transformed their approach to oncology. The conversation explores why nearly 40% of cancers are linked to modifiable risk factors and how lifestyle medicine can serve as an active therapeutic tool during and after treatment. Dr. Shah breaks down groundbreaking research on the gut microbiome, explaining how dietary fiber acts as a form of "original immunotherapy" to improve diversity and…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Padmaja Patel

Guests: Dr. Amy Commander, Dr. Urvi Shah

Topics covered

• lifestyle medicine
• cancer treatment
• modifiable risk factors
• gut microbiome
• early-onset cancers
• Western diet

Keywords

• lifestyle medicine
• cancer journey
• gut microbiome
• dietary fiber
• early-onset colorectal cancer
• oncology
• healthcare

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, American College of Lifestyle Medicine

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