World-famous doctors attended last week the second edition of the National Congress of Lifestyle Medicine, organized by the Romanian Society of Lifestyle Medicine (RSLM), in partnership with the Scientific Senate of the Dan Voiculescu Foundation for the Development of Romania. This year’s event was entitled “Modern Lethal Diseases: Are we tackling the symptoms or the causes?” and brought to the Romanian public a new scientific approach to disease prevention.
The more than 45 specialists present shared with participants valuable scientifically documented information on how lifestyle could ward off serious diseases and bring us a long and healthy old age.
Unprecedented findings from lifestyle medicine researchers
American doctor Caldwell Esselstyn, an award-winning researcher for his work on methods to cure heart disease, explained that these conditions are not irreversible. “There is a chemical constriction in our arteries that is caused by unhealthy eating. So in areas where cholesterol accumulates, the vessels should be able to dilate to allow blood to pass through. The predominantly plant-based diet produces chemical changes that have the effect of dilating the blood vessels so we have the possibility of becoming healthy again without operations to implant stents, without drugs that can have side effects,” explained the American researcher.
Another American doctor renowned for his studies on the effects of a vegan diet, Michael Klaper introduced a very bold conclusion in his presentation about the relationship between the human body and what it eats. “Research shows that diet influences genetic information, in that certain foods activate certain genes and blunt others. So what we eat is also information for our bodies, not just nutrients. In this way we will be able to know which foods influence the development of certain diseases that have genetic causes and how to activate genes that are beneficial to our health,” said the doctor.
According to a 2021 country profile analysis by the European Commission, almost half of all deaths in Romania in 2019 can be attributed to tobacco use, unhealthy diet, alcohol consumption and low physical activity levels.
In this context, the Romanian Society of Lifestyle Medicine aims to implement the lifestyle medicine curriculum in Romanian universities to train health professionals capable of providing patients with evidence-based approaches for the prevention, reversal and treatment of lifestyle-related conditions.
The Romanian Society of Lifestyle Medicine is the only professional association dedicated to this discipline, a concept brought to Romania in 2018 by Dr. Emanuela Mercore Huțanu who aims to introduce lifestyle medicine into Romanian university curriculums.
Since 2022, the Scientific Senate of the Dan Voiculescu Foundation for the Development of Romania is a partner of the Romanian Society for Lifestyle Medicine and collaborates in the organization of international longevity conferences initiated by the Senate.