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BSLM AUGUST 2020 NEWSLETTER
We're now less than a month away from our virtual conference, which will take place from 3–5 September! We're excited to once again offer you a programme of sessions which cover the latest big ideas in Lifestyle Medicine.
With our virtual setup, there will be ample opportunities to participate, network and ask questions on the day. In between, there will be sessions on physical exercise, music, meditation and even some comedy!
You can find a full programme of events across the three days here [PDF]. For more details, and to sign up, click here.
In Conversation: Rob Thomas
In the run-up to our annual conference in September we are bringing you a series of interviews with key figures from the world of lifestyle medicine - including some of those speaking at BSLM2020.
Last month, Rob Lawson interviewed consultant oncologist Professor Rob Thomas about tea, broccoli and cancer, as well as discussing his work in developing a lifestyle medicine-based nutrition plan, the benefits of group consultations and the ways he is adapting to telephone consulting.
This month, BSLM Director of External Affairs Dr Neil Bindemann has talked to two sleep medicine experts this month: Vicki Dawson, CEO and founder of The Children's Sleep Charity, and Dr Mike Farquhar, consultant in sleep medicine at the Evelina London Children's Hospital.
Watch all three interviews on our YouTube channel.
LM certification: There's still time to sign up!
It's not too late this year to get certified in LM! Our online certification exam will be held over the weekend of 24–25 October 2020. To take the exam, you must be a full member of the BSLM and a clinician, public health professional or a health practitioner. You must also have completed a certain amount of CPD. Attendance at the BSLM's conference would count towards a portion of the required CPD hours.
To sign up, or for more details, click here.
Sound Living podcast: Sue Smith
Helen Lawal has been back with the latest BSLM podcast, Sound Living. This time, she's talking to GP Dr Sue Smith about habits, their effects, and how to change them. Read more here.
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News
Leaders in Healthcare posters
This year's Leaders in Healthcare conference will take place at the Barbican in early November this year. They have put out a competitive call for posters to be displayed at this year's conference. They provide a selection of categories in which they're looking for poster submissions, with a broad focus on innovation in health leadership and management. Submit your poster here.
SOM: workplace health and Covid
The Society for Occupational Medicine (SOM) has put together a guidance document for workplace health when returning to work after COVID-19. The guidance, which has been adapted from advice issued by King's College Hospital's Occupational Health and Wellbeing department, can be viewed by clicking here [PDF].
Copewell-19 course
With our support, BSLM diplomate Dr Kurren Sandhu has put together an online wellbeing course for healthcare workers. The course is designed to tackle stress and burnout during COVID-19.
VGC webinar resources
For anybody who was unable to attend our 5th Virtual Group Consultations Webinar, resources from the series are now available on our website here.
Social prescribing SIG
Dr Alex Maxwell has set up a special interest group for Social Prescribing. He aims to create a supportive networking community of BSLM members throughout the UK who can share ideas and lessons learned to drive UK social prescribing forward.
If you would like to join the WhatsApp group please email him on alex.maxwell@doctors.org.uk or text/whatsapp on 07795076526. He would love to hear from you—the group is up and running and has already proven useful!
Join the Cornish Shuffle
The Cornish Shuffle is a set of dance steps created by Beth Chapman, a Cornwall-based NHS psychiatrist, and set to music by her sister Kate Hands.
Together, they believe that the physical and social elements of dancing can improve mental and physical well-being.
You can follow the project on Twitter using the hashtag #CornishShuffle. To learn more about the Cornish Shuffle, visit their YouTube page here.
BSLM member spotlight: Charlotte Marriott
Dr Charlotte Marriott is an NHS consultant general adult psychiatrist specialising in early intervention in psychosis. She weaves the principles of Lifestyle Medicine into her consultations, to help her patients optimise their mental and physical health and well-being.
She has recently become the Chair of the BSLM Mental Health Special Interest Group and is working with the group to put Lifestyle Psychiatry on the map in the UK.
Psychiatry has always been known for its biopsychosocial approach to patient care and lifestyle makes up a very necessary component of the biological, the psychological and the social.
Isolation, loneliness, poor sleep, stress, divorce, bereavement, redundancy, diets high in ultra-processed foods, smoking, alcohol, illicit substances, lack of physical activity, lack of meaning or purpose—are these chicken or egg?
It’s hard to say but I know that a person with treatment-resistant depression isn’t going to get better with any medication or psychological therapy if they spend all day sitting alone with the curtains closed. Somebody with severe generalised anxiety disorder isn’t going to get better when they drink 30 cups of coffee a day. A person with depression and comorbid type II diabetes with an out-of-control HbA1c is not doing himself any favours by drinking 2 litres of cola every day. And a person with first-episode psychosis on an atypical antipsychotic is going to gain weight and develop serious cardiometabolic side-effects if they are not counselled and facilitated to make changes to their lifestyle.
These sorts of questions are easy to weave into every consultation and only take a few minutes, but by asking about the pillars of lifestyle medicine described above we can truly make a difference to patient care, not only with regards to symptom reduction but functional outcomes and quality of life. The scenarios I have described are all real-life and are some of the most satisfying patients that I have treated. With a small intervention we can make an enormous difference to someone’s life.
The BSLM Mental Health Special Interest Group membership is diverse but we all have a common aim—to raise the profile of lifestyle medicine and lifestyle psychiatry in the UK and to influence national guidance. We are working towards developing a Lifestyle Psychiatry Special Interest Group at the Royal College of Psychiatrists and maybe even a Faculty of Lifestyle Psychiatry one day.
The SIG has also recently informed the BSLM stakeholder response to the NICE depression guidelines under development. We requested that a wider remit of lifestyle medicine evidence (other than focusing solely on physical activity) is included in the guidelines, particularly with regards to nutrition.
We aim to inspire and empower healthcare professionals to adopt a lifestyle medicine approach to mental illness within both primary and secondary care.
There is a rapidly-growing evidence base showing the benefits of lifestyle interventions for mental and physical health. It is essential that this evidence informs national guidance and is considered as seriously as the evidence for pharmacological approaches, especially when lifestyle medicine approaches are so cost-effective, both in terms of economics and adverse effects.
Community events and courses
NNEdPro 6th International Summit on Medical Nutrition Education and Research
Saturday 26 September 2020
Online
Event Details +
The International NNEdPro Summit on Medical & Public Health Nutrition Education & Research is a leading annual international scientific meeting in nutrition research and scientific dialogue attracting delegates who are key opinion leaders in the field from all over the globe.
Kernow BSLM Conference
Monday 7 December 2020
Pavilion Centre, Royal Cornwall Showground, Whitecross, Wadebridge, Cornwall PL27 7JE
Event Details +
Join us for the 3rd Kernow British Society of Lifestyle Medicine Conference in Cornwall on December 7th 2020.
Submit events that you'd like to see included on the BSLM events page
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