Practice Spotlight: Stuart Seale, MD 
Stuart Seale, MD, deeply understands Lifestyle Medicine and primary care, and recognizes the great challenge in joining the two. Co-author of The Full Plate Diet, The 30-day Diabetes Miracle, and nine-time recipient of the AMA Physician Recognition Award, Dr. Seale is also Chief Medical Officer for Lifestyle Center of America. After graduating from Loma Linda School of Medicine and training in family medicine at the University of Missouri, he practiced solo full-spectrum family medicine in Springfield, Missouri for twenty-one years.
His experience in primary care accentuated the need to treat root causes of disease, yet also made clear the challenges of doing so within a traditional primary care setting. “As physicians, we were trained to deal with acute crises, yet chronic disease is not an acute crisis and needs to be treated differently. I began to shift, philosophically and intellectually, toward greater understanding of the underlying causes of disease, seeing that standard practice does not address root causes, nor support lifestyle change. In part, this shift stemmed from my own personal practices as I moved away from a typical diet toward a plant-based diet and became more active, I began introducing elements of lifestyle change to my patients.” Finding it difficult to implement lifestyle interventions in the context of a busy primary care setting, he left his practice in 2005 to join the non-profit Lifestyle Center of America (LCA), and has since worked with them in multiple capacities, including his current role as Chief Medical Officer.
Because weight is such a prevalent and fundamental health concern and weight loss is a change that patients both want and need, Dr. Seale began focusing on weight reduction as a ‘Trojan horse’ within Lifestyle Medicine. His book, The Full Plate Diet, emphasizes fiber intake as a strategy for successful weight loss. The plan allows readers to eat a higher volume of lower calorie ‘real’ foods, which leads to weight loss without hunger and at the same time improves a number of health parameters. Featured on the best-selling lists of The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and USA Today, The Full Plate Diet has evolved into a comprehensive behavior change program with resources for individuals and groups, including a workbook and facilitator’s guide. (For more information on the Full Plate Diet book and weight loss program, see http://www.lifestylecenter.org/products-services/full-plate-diet/)
Dr. Seale is currently developing a pilot outpatient weight-loss practice for LCA, named Renovo Clinic in Gilbert, Arizona. “We’ll be building the practice from the ground up, in the same way that I built my practice many years ago.” A Nurse Practitioner and Health Coach, with Dr. Seale serving as Medical Director, will staff the clinic. Dr. Seale views the clinic’s philosophy as Lifestyle Medicine disguised within a weight-loss program. Behavior change is a foundational component of the program, using proven approaches such as Motivational Interviewing and the Social Learning Model. This will be the primary factor that will differentiate Renovo Clinic from other weight loss programs and services. There won’t be prescribing of weight-loss medication, or other “quick-fix” solutions that don’t work long-term. Patients will be coached through a process of developing their own personalized action plans that are sustainable and successful for them. “Patients choose elements that work best for them with a focus on small, incremental changes in eating and activity. The eventual plan is to develop a standardized clinical methodology and tools that will allow other medical practices to implement an effective, well-designed, and tested program. Doing so will thereby instill profitable lifestyle medicine into existing practices.”
Through a dual perspective developed over years of providing primary care and intensive Lifestyle Medicine, he shares, “It’s been a growth experience…if I were to open a primary care practice now, the treatment model would be very different. It would embrace behavior change: change from within, aligned with the patient’s values and with what’s most important to the patient. We need to ask of patients, “What do you want to be different? What do you want out of wellness?” We get stuck in the trap of telling people what to do, assuming that we simply need to educate our patients. I’ve learned that that approach doesn’t work and often sets up resistance. Of course, there needs to be education regarding ideal nutrition, physical activity, stress management, and other elements that comprise a healthy lifestyle. However, we need to step back from drowning the patient with a fire hose of medical information, and trust that patients already have a basic information data base. And we need to step back from always playing the expert role and have the patience and wisdom to allow the patient to move from point A to point B in a manner that works best for them, very difficult for most providers to do.” Dr. Seale goes on to state that the role of providers must be that of mentors and motivators, offering encouragement and acceptance to help patients develop confidence in their ability to self-change.
Looking toward the future, Dr. Seale shares his hope that providers and patients will increasingly realize the relationship of lifestyle to good health. “I would love to see a change from the current paradigm, to one that recognizes the underlying causes of the diseases that are killing people in this country. And along with that, an acceptance of lifestyle medicine as the expected foundation of treatment.” And he offers optimism that we as a culture are moving in the right direction.
Dr. Seale is certainly doing his part to light the way.
Article by Kathleen Jones
ACLM Disclaimer: Our Practice Spotlights are intended to provide examples of Lifestyle Medicine in practice. We recognize that Lifestyle Medicine practices vary widely, and inclusion in Practice Spotlight is not intended to imply official endorsement of individuals or practices.
