Barry Hall works with Corewell Health’s Lifestyle Medicine program, learning how lifestyle changes can influence health and reverse disease.
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Many people start the new year with a goal of being healthier. For Barry Hall, the lifestyle changes he wanted to make needed to happen year-round.
In just over six months, he lost over 70 pounds, ditched 12 medications, had more energy, no arthritic pain, and many other benefits. He did it all by focusing on food as medicine and learning how lifestyle changes can heal health problems. However, the path to get there has not been without pitfalls.
In 2021, Hall went to see his doctor with COVID-19.
“She said, ‘Hey, I don’t know if you know this, but you’re pre-diabetic and you have pre-hypertension,'” Hall said. “And I said, ‘No, no one has ever said that to me in my entire life.'”
It was mentioned Corewell Health Lifestyle Medicine Program. The program is designed by a team of experts to lead lifestyle changes that influence health. These changes include nutrition, physical activity, stress management, sleep, social connections, and avoidance of risky substances.
“I went there for about six months and lost a little bit of weight,” Hall said. “But then life happened. I stopped going.”
Hall hadn’t stopped thinking about lifestyle medicine, however, and in May 2024 he returned with new motivation.
“When I came back, I actually had diabetes, it wasn’t a meadow anymore,” Hall said. “I had high blood pressure. I was on over 10 medications. I weighed 308 pounds. I was a size 3X.”
This time he stuck to the program. He learned how changing what he eats, how he moves and more can influence his medical journey. He also lost 70 pounds in six months. However, the effects were felt far beyond weight loss.
“Right now, I’m not taking any medications,” Hall said. “I haven’t had any knee pain from my arthritis. I sleep so much better. My life has completely changed just because I was able to make these lifestyle changes.”
Lifestyle medicine centers on an ideal called “food is medicine.”
“What we know about chronic disease is that poor diet quality is the greatest risk factor for most of our chronic diseases,” said Dr. Kristi Artz, medical director of the Department of Medicine program. Corewell Health lifestyle. “Diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, many of the common lifestyle cancers, like breast cancer, colorectal cancer. And then, of course, the disease of obesity.”
Dr. Artz worked with Hall throughout his journey.
“Barry is such a unique and inspiring person,” Artz said. “He’s a young man. He has a great career. He has a young family. He has so many things that are really important to him, and so his health was a big concern, and something that he wanted to improve for being able to stay engaged in all these really important aspects of your life.”
Lifestyle Medicine is not a weight loss program. Artz said weight loss is often the result of changes, but that’s not the goal.
“It’s not alternative or complementary medicine,” Artz said. “It’s truly evidence-based medicine that when we start using prescriptions for nutrition, physical activity, stress management and sleep quality, we can routinely and predictably see regression in As a doctor like me, I am always delighted and excited and impressed by these changes, but they are also very predictable, because it is proven that when we use lifestyle as medicine, we know that the health of. our patients will improve.
When participating in the Lifestyle Medicine program, patients have access to health behavior assessments, personalized lifestyle plans, culinary medicine programs such as cooking classes and meal planning, to health and wellness coaching, addiction treatment and much more.
“I can breathe,” Hall said. “I have a weight on my chest.”
Hall coaches his son’s soccer team, saying he now has a lot more energy than before to do what he loves.
He prepares his meals and exercises daily, changes that require extra planning, but are worth it.
“It’s not what I do, it’s why I do it and how I do it that got me to what I do,” Hall said. “If I can do it, I guarantee anyone else can do it too.”
If you are interested in lifestyle medicine, ask your doctor. There’s also a 30-day plant-based eating challenge that anyone can take part in until February 5th. You can learn more about the Plant powered challenge here.