Christina Graham MSN, APN-BC, RYT

Hello friends! As an Adult and Geriatric Nurse Practitioner, I frequently witness the negative health consequences of the American or "western" diet and lifestyle. For many of my patients, so much damage has already occurred in the body from years of poor diet, obesity, substance abuse, and unmanaged stress. Many become dependent on medications and completely unaware of what a healthy nutritious diet consists of. To top it off, patients are often dealing with coping with multiple social stressors, poverty, and limited financial resources.

It is so disheartening to me that as a medical community, many of us are guilty of continuing down the path of placing expensive, potentially harmful bandaids on our patients' wounds rather than equipping them with the necessary tools to make realistic, effective lifestyle changes.

Research shows that interventions including a plant-based diet can help prevent, treat, and even reverse some chronic diseases (1), (2). As a medical professional, yoga instructor, and advocate of a "plant-based" lifestyle, it is my goal and passion to teach others how to adopt a nutritious, plant based diet, increase physical activity, and manage stress. It is my goal to work in collaboration with individuals and their health care providers to make safe, supervised diet and lifestyle changes.

(1) Fraser G, Katuli S, Anousheh R, Knutsen S, Herring P, Fan J. Vegetarian diets and cardiovascular risk factors in black members of the Adventist Health Study-2. Public Health Nutr. Published online March 17, 2014.

(2) Esselstyn CB Jr., Gendy G, Doyle J, Golubic M, Roizen MF. A way to reverse CAD? J Fam Pract. 2014;63:356-364b.