Lifestyle optimization plan reduces fat, improves strength and general health

They hadn’t been together since COVID-19 struck a few years ago, so when Judith Jeter and her closest friends from New Jersey gathered recently for their “annual” winter reunion, a lone girls’ night out wasn’t enough.

“No, it was more like a girls’ weekend or week out,” Judith admits. “They come down to escape New Jersey in the middle of the winter, and this time we spent about four days in the
Fort Lauderdale-Cocoa Beach area.”

Judith’s friends barely recognized her when they reunited. Since their last gathering, Judith has taken strides to improve her health, which was in the danger zone on several fronts a
few years back.

“For starters, I had some big-time weight issues,” Judith offers. “I’m 5-foot-7, and at one point I weighed 210 pounds and was wearing size 16-18 clothes. At the time, I was also taking medication for Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.

“I had been that way for almost 10 years, and I finally just got tired of being there. I was tired of feeling sick and tired all the time, so I finally decided that I’m going to go see my doctor and do whatever she says I need to do.”

Join the Club

Judith’s doctor is Delicia M. Haynes, MD, founder of Family First Health Center, an integrative, membership-based primary care clinic that empowers patients to look and feel their best inside and out through a
lifestyle medicine approach.

Family First Health Center uses direct primary care (DPC), a growing medical payment model in which patients pay a monthly fee instead of paying for each service.  Dr. Haynes offers prompt appointments, expanded one-on-one time, virtual visits and more. There are never any copays, deductibles, or insurance hassles. Patients receive better outcomes, an enhanced experience and lower costs.

“It’s like having a gym-style membership to your doctor,” Dr. Haynes relates. “But the membership is secondary because care is our primary focus. And what I promote is personalized health care. I’m like an old-time family doctor with modern technology.”

Dr. Haynes has helped other physicians transition to the DPC model.

“Most doctors really love practicing medicine, but they hate the way it’s being practiced,” she says. “This model is all about getting third parties out of the exam room and going back to emphasizing the doctor-patient relationship.”

Judith’s relationship with Dr. Haynes dates to when Dr. Haynes was completing her residency and Judith was a sales representative for a pharmaceutical company. They met during one of Judith’s sales calls and have been friends ever since.

“When Dr. Haynes opened Family First Health Center, my husband and I were part of the committee that put together her grand opening,” Judith adds. “It wasn’t long after that that I decided to go to her with this concern I had about my health.”

Lots of Water

Haynes began by recommending an anti-inflammatory diet made up of fruits, leafy vegetables, fish, poultry, nuts, seeds, and olive oil. Oh,
and lots of water.

“Inflammation causes the body to go into fat storage mode, and that’s what we want to avoid.” Dr. Haynes educates. “So, I recommended the anti-inflammatory diet and suggested that Judith drink lots and lots of water – at least half her body weight in ounces each day. I actually recommend that for almost everyone, not just dieters.”

Dr. Haynes also recommended an intermittent fasting plan in which Judith ate only during a specified eight-hour period and fasted the rest of the day. That was designed to help keep Judith from falling into a fat-creating habit.

“A lot of people tend to not eat all day and then overeat at dinner time or not long before they go to bed,”
Dr. Haynes notes. “But it’s never good to have your largest caloric intake just before bed, so the time we eat is just as important as what we eat.”

On Dr. Haynes recommendation, Judith also increased her aerobic activity. She went from living a mostly sedentary lifestyle to taking daily walks around the block. That change and another treatment recommendation helped Judith reach her goal.

“The other recommendation I made was for a treatment package I offer called Core to Floor Therapy,” Dr. Haynes explains. “It features treatments using the BTL Emsella® Kegel chair and Emsculpt NEO®.”

The BTL Emesella Kegel chair is just that. It’s a chair that restores neuromuscular control in patients with concerns about urinary incontinence by delivering high-intensity electromagnetic energy to the pelvic floor muscles.

Emsculpt NEO is a nonsurgical body-contouring device that uses rapid pulses of high-intensity electromagnetic energy and radiofrequency to simultaneously burn stubborn fat, tone muscle and tighten skin. 

Delivered through an applicator placed on the treatment area, the radiofrequency heats fat cells to where they break down and become permanently damaged. At the same time, the radiofrequency heats muscle in the target area.

As that happens, the NEO’s electromagnetic component creates what amounts to thousands of supramaximal muscle contractions, which are far more than any individual can do.

“Think of it like this,” Dr. Haynes explains. “At best, a nonathlete might get 30 percent muscle engagement during a workout. Even an Olympic athlete will only get 50 percent engagement. This technology gets you between 90 and 100 percent engagement.

“That’s why Emsculpt NEO is so effective in building muscle. And in terms of losing fat, once the fat cells are permanently damaged and die, they go through a process called lymphatic drainage in which they slowly exit the body through the lymph system.”

Works For Me 

Ideally suited for people with a body mass index (BMI) of less than 35, Emsculpt NEO treatments last about 30 minutes, and FDA-approved studies show that a four-treatment regimen will result in a 30 percent reduction in fat and a 25 percent increase in muscle.

Similar studies show that treatments also lead to a 14.3 percent reduction of visceral fat, which is the dangerous fat that surrounds abdominal organs and increases the risk for Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, stroke, fatty liver disease and more.

Judith’s bout with several of those issues made her a good candidate for Emculpt NEO, which helped her lose 30 pounds and four inches around her waist. She is now wearing size 12 clothes and feeling healthier than she has in years.

“In addition to losing all that weight, my A1c (blood sugar) went from 10 to less than six, so I’m off my Type 2 diabetes medication now,” Judith enthuses. An A1c below 5.7 is considered normal. “Emsculpt NEO helped with that, but I think it was mostly the diet that got me to where I am today.

“It’s been a total lifestyle change for me. I’m even getting out and moving more. I’m walking at least three miles two to three times a week, so I’m very happy with the results and just can’t thank Dr. Haynes enough for all her care and advice. She’s great.” ■

© FHCN article by Roy Cummings

Photo credit, Jordan Pysz