Dr. Wayne Andersen Interview
On November 6, 2008 I had the pleasure of interviewing what I consider to be the ambassador of optimal health. Dr. Wayne Andersen discusses his seasoned career, his role as medical director for Medifast, and his new book "Dr. A's Habits of Health" in this 24 minute interview. The interview also contains great information on how people can not only lose weight, but become healthier for a lifetime. To download the interview click the following URL: Dr. Andersen Interview
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Ernesto Martinez: Hello everyone! This is Ernesto with You On a Diet and today I have a very special guest joining me all the way from the beautiful State of Maryland, Dr. Wayne Andersen. Dr. Andersen currently serves as the Medical Director for Medifast Inc., which is the leading provider of pre-packaged, portion-controlled meals. He is the Founder and Chief Architect of Take Shape for Life, and the author of the new book 'Dr. A's Habits of Health'. Dr. Andersen, thanks for taking the time to join us here today.
Dr. Wayne Andersen: Well, thank you Ernesto, I am very excited to be here and I appreciate an opportunity to talk to your listeners.
Ernesto Martinez: It is our pleasure. Now before your current roles with Medifast and Take Shape for Life, you have had a pretty remarkable career. Graduated from the University of Florida, completing medical school, finishing two years of training in open heart surgery at Jackson Memorial Hospital and then, of course, spending your 18 years directing the Surgical Critical Care Program at Grandview Hospital and that's just a small list of your accomplishments. What was the deciding factor to leave such an amazing career in surgical intensive care to devote your efforts towards helping people get healthy?
Dr. Wayne Andersen: That's a great question. I have always looked at ways to do a better job at helping people and it started with critical care. Critical care was a very unique specialty. I was actually the tenth board certified physician in the country in critical care and I went down because I knew that taking care of the whole person was very important with the critically ill patient.
Before that time, you had a cardiologist, pulmonologist or a nephrologist, and infectious disease specialist and you have a lot of people taking care of their organ but sometimes the patient didn't really get the holistic approach towards what was in their best interest. So I did that for 18 years. I loved it while I was doing it. I really became enamored with the inherent capacity for the body to heal itself. I spent a lot of time working with surgical nutrition, using metabolic cards (ph), and really looking at the very sick individual, the person that's been in the car accident or had a very big surgery or had a heart attack or had open heart surgery…
When I really paid attention to the nutrient needs to give the cells and to give the individual the right nutrition underneath that stress response, I found that it was better than any of our medications, any of our drugs, any of our ventilators and that's kind of where I fell in love with that piece. At the same time, I was getting people out of the ICU but I was never really making them healthy and they would go back to their old lifestyle and I watched them over the 18 years, I was getting to the point where I wasn't having as much fun any more. Managed care change.
There were so many things going on in the bureaucracy world. We weren't able to take care of our patients the way we wanted to and I realized that the real need was to move upstream and keep people from getting sick and then as that evolved in early 2000, I left critical care and went out to discover ways to help people improve their health.
One of the things I got very excited about was the social network, where people working together in a collective consciousness could actually help make a difference and there was an article actually in New England Journal of Medicine last year that talked about 32 years from the Framingham Study of people, that were around people that were overweight or obese, got overweight or obese and they didn't even have to be living by each other. They could be separated by a distance but because of the relationship, because of their peer group they would then develop those conditions.
So I started looking at that and I decided to look for a way to help people change the momentum of their life. That let me to Medifast. I joined Medifast literally in the beginning to use the meal replacements as the structured eating plan. I knew how effective meal replacements could be for helping someone lose weight but they were always criticized because they didn't teach you how to eat healthy and they didn't teach you the other habits that were necessary to get healthy and to stay healthy.
So what I did is, I focused on that and over the last seven years by working with people, we would help you know hundreds of thousands of people, create health in their life. And as I said, more and more time out lecturing and finding on how to make people get healthy, I started realizing that the meal replacement was a great starting step but what really had to happen is you had to change people's motivation from moving away from what they don't want. In other words, if they are overweight or obese, losing weight to really focusing what they do want.
So, in our society Ernesto, what is happening is most people are reacting to everything in their life. They are solving, they are solving problems. That's what they do. They solve problems and when you solve problems what you are in essence doing is you are not creating anything. So yeah you might have gotten rid of this problem or that problem or your high blood pressure may come down, but you are not really creating what you really want and that is health.
So that's kind of what set me on task and now what we found is by helping people focus on creating health, we make such a difference. That's so important because we live in an obesogenic world and what I mean by that our design and the planet we live on are in direct conflict. We were designed 10,000 years ago to forage and to store energy because energy was very scarce. Now you have a 100% probability when you open up your refrigerator there is food in there, right.
Ernesto Martinez: Absolutely.
Dr. Wayne Andersen: So that's kind of the problem. The other piece of course, is energy saving devices, our sitting at computers all day long. The stress response from being stressed out. Technology is no longer serving us. It is creating more Angioplasty, more drugs but it's actually degrading the quality of our life. So the first time, we are the first generation that is saying that our quality of life isn't as great as our parents. That's a harbinger of real problems to come and then the second part is, even though our life expectancy is at its all time high right now. Because of this growing trend, this obesogenic trend in people not being healthy, we are about ready to see that number go down and so we at a confluence of a lot of things in our society that we have to make a change. We can't afford to continue reacting to disease. So the whole goal with what we do is helping people focus on creating health.
Ernesto Martinez: The best approach I believe in my opinion. Back in July, Take Shape for Life and Medifast had their national convention. You actually held workshops for other health professionals, what kind of reaction are you getting regarding your teachings on optimal health?
Dr. Wayne Andersen: It's incredible. I have -- yesterday actually at my house, was one of the top cardiologist in the country and he came down, he is from Albany, New York and has a 50,000 patient practice and he, about say a month ago, said to me, you know I thought I would die Wayne before I would see a program like this that allows us to now focus on the third era of medicine. In other words, allowing us to focus on helping patients create health verses just putting band-aids on people and he is so excited.
Now, he is moving his practice much more into the creating health arena. His office is full and he is getting people off their medication. He has hundreds and hundreds of patients that are coming to his support meetings. His patients are spreading the word like wild fire. I have physicians all over the country. We have 200, 300 health coaches joining us per month and a large percent of them, 30% of them are now actually health care professionals that are joining us because we are focusing on doing something that's never been done before. That is helping the individual create responsibility for their own health.
I have physicians that I am talking to, physicians in huge organizations and groups that want to join what we are doing. They know we can no longer wait for people to get sick, we need to become active in that role and that's what we were doing and that too is why we are focusing on working as a collective consciousness of individuals, both health coaches, health professionals and allied health professionals to now focus on how do we help teach people to take responsibility and how can we provide a micro environment help for them in order for them to have access, from the comforts of their home for all the things they need to create health.
Ernesto Martinez: So about the book 'Dr. A's Habits of Health', I understand you have been involved in many areas of health. How did the concepts and ideas come together for this book?
Dr. Wayne Andersen: The central idea of the book is to really focus on the daily choices that create health and those daily choices are very unique and different. What I found and learned over the last decade working with people in their struggle is that some people do some of the things right; they listen to TV, they read articles, they learn about the things that are supposed to be good for you and they rely on individual components that by themselves are good for you.
But the problem is living in an obesogenic world there are so many factors that are working against your design. If you don't pay attention to all of the different factors, all the habits of health, then you are most probably not going to be successful. What I mean by that, if you are stressed out at your job, if you are not sleeping well, if you are drinking, you’ve got in a cycle, where you are sleeping very poorly and you are drinking coffee in the late afternoon or early evening to stay awake, so you can finish what your boss has given you, you are not going to sleep well that night because Caffeine has a half-life of six hours.
So even though that innocuous thing… coffee, you may think has nothing to do with being overweight or being obese. It has a great amount to do with that, because if you are not sleeping well and you wake up the next day, the areas in your body are craving glucose. They’re craving high glycemic carbohydrates and with those you are raising your insulin level, you are raising your stress level, your cortisol levels are going up, and it's creating this insatiable hunger that you get as a response for that.
So what the book is about is addressing all the main areas and really taking people on a path from where they are at their current point in life and then moving them forward, so they’re in position to now, through daily choices, through little incremental baby steps, start improving their health and their life.
Now, with that much said, it's very important that the fundamental first piece for most people, and certainly many of your readers that are looking to reach a healthy weight. Reaching a healthy weight is what I consider the most important first step on the path to optimal health. So, we start with that and why are we so enamored with portion-controlled meal replacements is because our lives are so chaotic, there is so much going on that when I can tell someone and ask someone the question, can you eat every three hours and they can say yes and I say, can I pick out what you like?
And they can literally take and pick out from soups, chilies, bars, oatmeal, cappuccino, scrambled eggs, all of these thing that have an identical nutritional foot print, that will put them in a fat burning state in about three days, and start them on their journey. Because it is structured, it takes very little time for preparation, doesn't require any other skill sets. People can start on their journey through the portion-controlled meal replacements and then over the next couple of weeks, as they start losing weight, they start sleeping better, they have more energy, that's what I call the teachable moment and that's when the Habits of Health really kick in to gear.
That's when I can start talking to them about eating smaller meals throughout the day. I can talk to them about starting to add a little more movement within their daily schedule at work. That's when we can talk to them about how they are sleeping. So it allows us to have somebody in that teachable moment for the first time in their life where they really feel, hey, I am doing well. I feel better. I have kind of a suspension of this kind of groundhog’s day that's been going on in my life. I am now in position to start learning the different components that are necessary.
Ernesto Martinez: You alluded to this earlier. You discussed in your book the importance of having a good support system around you. In fact, you used the term BioNetwork, can you tell me a little bit about what a BioNetwork is and how it contributes to the success in achieving health?
Dr. Wayne Andersen: Yeah, we talked a little bit earlier about a social network. What I realized was that the only thing that's really made a difference is actually grassroots approach. What I found is people that get healthy, people that actually lose weight and get healthy and then reach out and help others, those people have a much greater chance of staying healthy. In fact, if you look at the National Weight Control Registry, they interviewed Inga Treitler one of the top cultural anthropologists in the country. They interviewed successful people they called the masters of weight loss. These are people that have lost at least 60 pounds and kept it off at least five years. So these are people that have beaten the odds. About 85% of people on a diet alone will gain their weight back if they don't have the other components necessary.
So what these people do is they beat the odds. So when she evaluated those people that became masters, she found that one thing that was very much in common. They had undergone a transformation. They had gone from being the victim to really being a mentor or a coach. They had changed their jobs, they changed their orientation and they were now through rights of passage. They were now very active in helping others in some aspects of their life.
So that's what a BioNetwork is about. It literally is a growing network of people that are focused on “how do we help create health”, first for ourselves and then for others. That peer group can start with just simply, making decisions and this is what I suggest in the book. They grab a couple of people and start on the program. You start your program. Whatever program you decide. I mean, I have a preference for meal replacements. I think they are a nice easy way to start. In the book, I talked about eating healthy. You can do it without meal replacements.
There is certainly not a prerequisite but using meal replacements, I recommend them because I know how effective they can be. But you can do it by eating healthy food, by learning how to eat low glycemic. In the book, I spent about five chapters talking about low glycemic index, eating healthy foods, how to use portion-control, how to use visual plate system in making these things color coded. So they are very easy to use and then getting started on that first aspect, and whether you are starting up with three or four friends or you are now connected to a large group of people that are all focused on health, it can make a big difference. What I realized is that in the next few years, the obesogenic world we are in, Ernesto, is not going to go away.
So by creating a micro environment of health where we have healthcare professionals that are now focused on health, we have allied health professionals, we have health coaches, we have people that are now long term clients that have gotten healthy, that are dialed in and we connect them through using online support pieces such as online areas where they can track their progress, using virtual clinics where literally, I provide a level of support calls, where there is doctors calls, nurses calls, and maintenance calls, where we actually had masters that have lost over 50-60 pounds and kept it off over five years.
They actually talk about long term success. They help people that are now way on their journey and have lost the weight, how to maintain their healthy weight and beyond that, towards optimal health. And the key thing we do in the BioNetwork is we give people from their home, at no additional charge, access to whole bunch of ways, whatever fits their personality, to help them know that they are not in this alone.
We are now creating a healthy environment. It's kind of like, if you look at going to a football game, the antithesis of that is before a foot ball game …and I am saying you can not enjoy. I love going to see football games. But you see a group of people, every Sunday, or if it’s in college every Saturday, having Buffalo wings and drinking beer and sitting around, and because of that, that environment creates a bad environment. Now, football season is only a limited part and if they do that only occasionally, your body has the inherent capacity to over come that.
But if you are doing it every day, if you are with people that are going out and eating at the wrong places, going to the fast food establishments, going and eating, -- going to their favorite donut shop every morning and having a cup of coffee and the donut to start their day. Being around people that are in those environments, make it very hard to help create health. So the BioNetwork is really a bunch of people who have made a decision. Hey, we are going to get healthy, we are going to have fun, I mean, they can eat what they want, but there is a whole people who are now organizing their lives around the choices that support health versus support disease.
Ernesto Martinez: If you had to recommend one tip for 'You Are On A Diet' Readers, just one tip to help them start on their journey towards achieving optimal health. What would it be?
Dr. Wayne Andersen: Really start with sitting down and asking one question. If you had the choice, the fundamental choice of optimal health, would you take it? So, In other words, Ernesto, I think for all your listeners and your readers, to sit down, and really ask that question to themselves. And I would say that pretty much everybody would say, yes. It's kind of, like freedom. It's a fundamental choice. Now some people may hesitate and say, I don't know .And the only reason why they would do that is because they are not sure they could do it, but if you actually could have the choice, and you could push the button and have optimal health, would you take it? And the answer would be, yes.
So, what I would say to all of your readers and listeners is…. Great, if that's really the truth, then what we are going to talk about and teach you and what you need to learn, is about recognizing what supports that choice. So, what I mean by that, if you were, Ernesto, if you are going to play a world class piano, what would you do everyday when you came home from work? You would go and play the piano, because it supported what you really wanted.
And that’s my message to all of your readers and your listeners, is that, if you wanted -- if your fundamental choice is to create optimal health, then what we want to do is we want to organize your choices around what supports that. So what I mean by that?
One of your primary choices would be, to eat healthy. Now, and the same thing, one of your primary choices would be to be more active. I got to tell you that 90% of the people who buy exercise equipments within the first 12 months, they don't use that any more. It becomes a coat rack. So what I am saying is I don't like exercising. There are some people that love it. But most people don't like exercising. But what I do -- I have made the choices that I want to be more active because, it supports my fundamental choice for optimal health.
So, I go work out for an hour three days a week. Now, I did not do that before, and I am just doing that now because now I have learned all the other daily things you can do which don't require going out inactive. But the secondary choice of going out and doing exercise and going to the gym, I don't it because I enjoy it. I do it because it supports my primary choice which is to create optimal health for myself. And when you start thinking about that and you start organizing around what are the most important things in your life and then the choices that support that, then it becomes much easier.
And that's by the way, proper motivation. Because now, what you are doing is you are doing something because it supports what you really want. And that’s what most people don't do when they go on a diet. They say, “Oh god, I feel terrible, I want to lose some weight, or I just found that I am pre-diabetic, and I got to lose some weight”. So, that’s an emotional decision they make. So they make the emotional decision. They go on a diet, they start losing weight. They lose about 10 pounds. They feel really great because they have now lessened this conflict that they had created in their brain. And they what do they do? They stop doing the diet. Right? Because now the pressure is on.
So that doesn't work. What does work is, now everybody should really pay attention to the fundamentals. This is not a philosophy. This is actually the facts. The facts are, if you ask yourself, and make the decision, you want to create optimal health. Then it's about now spending the time in organizing your life in a pro-active fashion, so that when you get up in the morning, you are now doing mostly things that support, what you really want. Just like if you really want to be the world class pianist, if you really want to be healthy, then you are going to now make the choices that support that. And they are not necessarily going to be fun.
So, if you are getting ready to have Hot Fudge Sunday, and it looks good in the moment because you are stressed out at work. You take that and for about five minutes, you feel good, you feel great, you get that instant gratification. And then you know that 20 minutes later you are going to feel lousy and then after that you are going to feel guilty about it, and all of a sudden, blah, blah, blah. What you should be saying in your head, is “you know what? My choice today is that I don't need that Hot Fudge Sunday, and it does not support what I really want”.
So I am not going to have it. And thank you very much, it looks good, but, no, I am not going to have it. And that is now supporting what you really want, and that’s the goal of the Habits of Health, is to make it so once you really start applying all these little things. And by the way, none of them, there is not one of them that everybody that's listening or reading this, can't do. There is nothing in the Habits of Health. Nothing that we are going to teach individuals that they can't do. It's just a matter of understanding number one, what is the right primary, secondary choice? And then what are the little things that I can do to support health? And, to kind of finish up. If you have salad for lunch, or you have a double cheese burger with fries, today it's not going to make much difference in your health. It's undetectable. And that is the problem.
Over time, year after year, hamburger after hamburger, suddenly, at 3 o'clock or 10 o'clock in the morning, on Monday morning, the executive has a massive heart attack. And everybody says, he looked like he was so healthy. And it's because all those little daily choices, over time make all the difference in the world. And if you have the salad for lunch, it's not going to make a difference today. But if you are willing to make most of the choices [overtime it will]. I am not saying you can't enjoy food, I mean, I eat everything; I have been using the Habit’s of Health now for seven years. There is not one thing that I eat that I don't love. I don't deprive myself of anything. But what I do is I do it on a daily basis where most of my choices are based on, if it helps my body create health.
Occasionally when I feel like having something that isn't[healthy], I take care of that taste satisfaction and enjoy that part. And I don't feel like, I am holding stuff because that is a problem. If we feel we are being restricted from something, our brain starts playing all kinds of game with us.
Ernesto Martinez: Well, I have to tell you, I am very excited about the release of the book. How can people go out and pick up a copy?
Dr. Wayne Andersen: Best way to get it is by going going to www.DrWayneAndersen.com. Or you can go to the habitsofhealth.net. So either one will get you there. And you will be able to order it right online. Actually one of my goals is to hopefully promote it as health for the holidays to give people a kind of continuum. It's 400 pages, it's all full color and I am very excited that the people, who have read it, have really enjoyed it. And I am really proud because I feel it really gives the individual a handbook to start taking back control of their health. So, I really appreciate the opportunity to talk to you tonight.
Ernesto Martinez: Dr. Anderson, thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule, and I look forward to speaking with you again, in the near future.
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