Type 2 diabetes affects over 37 million Americans — but what if our standard treatment paradigm is all wrong?

In this episode, Dr. Meagan Grega shares the science and strategy behind lifestyle medicine, a fast-growing movement that uses food, sleep, movement, stress reduction, and social connection to treat and even reverse chronic disease.

Dr. Grega is the co-author of the first-ever Clinical Practice Guideline on Lifestyle Interventions for Type 2 Diabetes and a lead author of ACLM’s Expert Consensus Statement on lifestyle medicine in primary care. She co-founded the Kellyn Foundation, where she helps families across Pennsylvania access fresh food, grow gardens, change lifestyle and improve their health together.

You’ll learn:

• How fat in your muscles causes insulin resistance — and how to reverse it
• What makes behavior change stick
• Why doctors don’t prescribe lifestyle medicine — and how that’s changing
• How community-based programs and school gardens are transforming lives
• New Clinical Guidelines and Expert Consensus on treating diabetes with lifestyle interventions

📚 Resources:

• Free CME course: https://lifestylemedicine.org/education-certification/course-catalog/
• Kellyn Foundation: https://www.kellyn.org/
• Dr. Grega’s TED Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efGa8QD8pU4
• ACLM Clinical Practice Guideline: https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/ajla/19/2_suppl
• ACLM Expert Consensus Statement: Lifestyle Medicine for Optimal Outcomes in Primary Care: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/15598276231202970

Follow Biomedical Frontiers for more:

📸 Instagram: @biomedicalfrontiers

🔗LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uvacoulter

📧 Reach us: biomedicalfrontiers@virginia.edu

Love this podcast? Write to us with feedback or guest recommendations!

Production Team:

Director & Host: Dasha Tyshlek, StratCraft www.strat-craft.com

Executive Producer: David Chen, Managing Director & Instructor of Engineering Design

Senior Producer: Hannah Moore, Associate Director, UVA Coulter Design Director

Produced on behalf of: Wallace H. Coulter Center for Translational Research at University of Virginia

Dr. Stanley Crooke pioneered a new class of medicine—antisense oligonucleotides—and built a $5B biotech company, Ionis Pharmaceuticals, to prove it could work. Then he walked away to found a nonprofit, n-Lorem, to treat patients with one-in-a-billion genetic mutations—people no one else would help. In this episode, we explore:

• What nano-rare diseases are, and why they represent medicine’s next great frontier.
• The promise of antisense therapy for individualized, mutation-specific treatment.
• The 30-year scientific journey behind genetic medicine—and what it takes to lead through failure.
• Why n-Lorem offers a new nonprofit model for treating diseases too rare to commercialize.
• The privilege, heartbreak, and hope of doing science not just for success, but for purpose.

Mentioned Resources:

• Antisense Technology: A Review (PubMed)
• n-Lorem Foundation
• Hope Lies in Dreams – Nature’s 10-part series on Dr. Crooke
• The National Economic Burden of Rare Disease Study (EveryLife Foundation)

Follow Biomedical Frontiers for more: 📸 Instagram: @biomedicalfrontiers 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uvacoulter 📧 Reach us: biomedicalfrontiers@virginia.edu Love this podcast? Write to us with feedback or guest recommendations!

Production Team: Director & Host: Dasha Tyshlek, StratCraft, Inc. www.strat-craft.com Executive Producer: David Chen, Managing Director & Instructor of Engineering Design Senior Producer: Hannah Moore, Associate Director, UVA Coulter Design Director: Carolyn Wagner, Inc. & Link: carolynwagnerinc.com Produced on behalf of: Wallace H. Coulter Center for Translational Research at University of Virginia

Why Is Your Prescription So Expensive? How Pharmacists Can Help Fix Healthcare 💊 Featuring: Vinay Patel, Pharmacist & Founder of MakoRx

Did you know that prescription drugs now account for 40% of healthcare spending on many employer plans? Or that pharmacists were once forbidden from telling you about cheaper alternatives to the medications you take?

In this eye-opening episode, pharmacist and healthcare entrepreneur Vinay Patel joins host Dasha Tyshlek to expose the tangled web of middlemen, opaque pricing, and policy loopholes that drive up the cost of care—and to offer real, actionable solutions.

Drawing from his experience serving over 15,000 patients through home delivery and launching the cost-plus pharmacy platform MakoRx, Vinay shares:

• Why drug prices vary wildly—and who really profits from your prescriptions
• What “gag clauses” were and why they harmed patients
• How subscription-based pharmacy models are changing the game
• The forgotten role of pharmacists in patient-centered care
• How employers can save 30–40% on their pharmacy costs

Whether you’re a patient, a provider, or a policymaker, this episode is packed with insights on how to untangle the “complification” of our system—and why independent pharmacies could be the future of accessible, affordable care.

📚 Mentioned on the podcast:

• Unlocking the Value of AI in Healthcare by Dasha Tyshlek: https://www.strat-craft.com/learnwithstratcraft/ai-healthcare-report-info/report
• Bottle of Lies by Katherine Eban: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/bottle-of-lies-katherine-eban
• Books by Marty Makary: https://www.martymd.com/

🔗 Learn more about Vinay Patel: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vinaypharmd/ Company: https://www.makorx.com/

Director & Host: Dasha Tyshlek, StratCraft, Inc. www.strat-craft.com

Executive Producer: David Chen, Managing Director & Instructor of Engineering Design, UVA

Senior Producer: Hannah Moore, Associate Director, UVA Coulter

Design Director: Carolyn Wagner, Inc. & Link: carolynwagnerinc.com

🎧 Produced on behalf of Wallace H. Coulter Center for Translational Research at University of Virginia https://engineering.virginia.edu/centers-institutes/coulter-center-translational-research 📩 Send feedback or guest ideas: biomedicalfrontiers@virginia.edu