“All plants are our brothers and our sisters
They talk to us.
If we listen, we can hear them.”
-Native American Proverb
Plants give us life! As from all living things, valuable life lessons can be gleaned by those who observe, listen, and appreciate. Oxygen, food, shelter, medicine, beauty, and joy are some of the countless benefits they bring to our lives. Flowers, trees, and seas of coral control carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as solar powered air purifiers. Waiting for a flower to bloom or a vegetable to ripen teaches us patience, persistence, diligence, and trust. Plants endure endless challenges of extreme temperature, drought, and disease, exemplifying the resilience we should all strive for to overcome adversity and grow. And just like plants, we must all be nourished to thrive towards our full potential.
I was honored to be invited to speak at this year’s Plant-Based Prevention of Disease Conference, which is devoted to nourishing our individual, collective, and planetary wellness.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JCQM-FMOF3IHfP7Xj3J_-bEmDvmtr6Ak/view?usp=sharing
This awesome conference assisted in broadening the bounds of Lifestyle Medicine by featuring me as a Distinguished Researcher and Doctor of Physical Therapy, promoting integrative injury prevention and physical activity as an important frontier of Lifestyle Medicine.
P-POD also strongly emphasizes health equity issues for increased attention, and included me in the Round Table Discussion of Women’s Health Empowerment to analyze healthcare/ training disparities for females in sports/athletics.
Plant-based Prevention of Disease, Inc., is a nonprofit accepting zero funding, sponsorship, or influence from commercial sources for its fully accredited “P-POD” continuing education conferences for healthcare practitioners and educators. Its traditional motto has been “The Future of Healthcare Begins with Nutrition”, and since December 2017 it has been approved as a provider of the ABLM/ACLM ten-hour in-person Continuing Medical Education prerequisite for the annual Lifestyle Medicine Diplomate certifying examination.
The annual evidence-based P-POD Conferences address the impact that plant-based nutrition, combined with Lifestyle Medicine and health equity, can have on prevention, reversal and mitigation of disease and dysfunction, promoting society’s health and wellness. Plus, registration fees per day are lower than those for most accredited U.S. professional conferences.
Current Core Topics covered at all full conferences:
- Promoting healthful behaviors at the community-program and primary-care levels
- Cancer prevention and survivorship
- Cardiovascular health and disease
- Diabetes prevention or reversal
- Exercise physiology, and movement in daily lifestyle
- Health equity, vulnerable populations, and access disparities for care and nutritious food
- Kidney health and chronic kidney disease
- Mental and brain health
- Microbiota/gut health and dysbiosis; gut-brain axis; immune homeostasis and autoimmunity
- Pediatrics
- Plant-based nutrition as a practical resource in chronic disease prevention/reversal
- Restorative (sleep, social connection) and degrading (chronic stress, risky substances) lifestyle factors
- Women’s health
- Also covered in 2024 will be disparate health effects of partly-human-diet-linked environmental harms
Stay tuned for the upcoming edition of the International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention for summaries of the conference presentations!
Plant power will propel us, our children, and Mother Earth to the most magnificent future of our dreams!