DASHDietRx™ – A Complete Solution for Prescribing the DASH Diet to Patients for Hypertension
Have you prescribed the DASH diet (or any diet) in a way that makes it likely that your patient will follow the dietary recommendations for a healthier heart or better overall health? Statistically, you have not. And sending patients to Dr. Oz’s website or WebMd don’t count.
[If you prefer a Mediterraean or other diet to DASH, don’t change the channel. We have you covered too.]
About 610,000 people die of heart disease in the United States every year–that’s 1 in every 4 deaths. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. These statistics are pretty frightening but what’s really scary is that one the simplest and most cost-effective ways to reduce the number of casualties related to preventable high blood pressure and other heart disease, is largely ignored, and not just by patients. Medical providers are largely at fault.
For the vast majority of people at risk of death from heart disease, the solution to avoiding, reducing or reversing hypertension and other conditions, can be as simple as a dietary or other lifestyle change. And healthcare practitioners can’t claim ignorance or lack of training in nutrition or lifestyle management as an excuse to implementing lifestyle change instructions that patients can actually follow and comply with. Not anymore. The solution is simple.
If at-risk people followed what the American Heart Association describes as an “ideal healthy diet,” they would be about 25% less likely to die of heart failure. BUT only 1 percent of U.S. adults meet the American Heart Association’s definition for “Ideal Healthy Diet.” ONE PERCENT. The problem is that the patient, the average person on the street, doesn’t know what a “ideal healthy diet” is. They should, but they don’t. But doctors do.
For example, there’s one diet that was just voted #1 for reducing hypertension and cholesterol and best overall diet by U.S. News and World Report for the 8th year in a row. If you’re a doctor, you already know the name of the diet and what a powerful tool it is for your patient’s health. It’s the DASH Diet. (A “Mediterranean diet” can work too).
Now I would have to just be OK with patients dropping the ball on their own health if every doctor was trying to help at risk patients in a meaningful way, and those patients were just stubbornly refusing to follow good advice from their doctors. But that’s not what’s happening.
What’s happening is that doctors know all of these statistics and for some reason, doctors really AREN’T doing anything meaningful to fix this. But clearly they should be. People are 5 times more likely to take lifestyle advice from their doctor. Yet only 1 in 3 doctors gives it. (CDC)
So what’s going on?
- Do doctors just not care? (That’s not possible, right?)
- Do doctors not know what advice to give or how to give it? (That’s hard to believe.)
- Is it not profitable to help patients with this obvious and solvable issue? (Maybe but . . .?)
- Are doctors too busy and not equipped to give patients actionable and effective lifestyle change tools and programs? (That must be it.)
Every doctor visit starts with measuring a patient’s weight, blood pressure and biomarkers from a blood or urine test. Statistically, every other person a doctor or staff sees is overweight or has an indicator of diabetes, hypertension, etc. that can be prevented, controlled or even reversed with lifestyle changes recommended by same the provider who’s handing out the bad news.
Assign DASH to patients with DashDietRx™ today.
“You’re overweight. You have high cholesterol. Eat better. Exercise.” Interesting. Every exercise program a patient might encounter once they leave the doctor’s office, begins with a disclaimer: “talk to your doctor before you start an exercise program.” But wait, I just left the doctor’s office.
And when it comes to diet, the doctor’s advice is usually a handout with “foods to eat” and “foods to avoid” or some other marginally helpful generic information that gets thrown away. I got one at my last doctor visit. I accidentally left it on the counter when I left. Doctors seem to not have any time to offer a more comprehensive solution that the patient could easily follow.
But they must know that they should. For example, if you’re a cardiologist, you’re probably familiar with the 2013 AHA/ACC Guideline on Lifestyle Management to Reduce Cardiovascular Risk from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association Task Force on Practice Guidelines. One main directive: “DASH Diet.”
So maybe doctors have an idea that they should give more guidance and want to, but just can’t. And maybe they would, if they had an easier way to do it so that tools and time weren’t a barrier. But every time they don’t, they send another person back into the world who is potentially the next heart disease related death.
Why don’t we fix this problem.
What if you could give every patient who has high blood pressure, high cholesterol, overweight, etc. a lifestyle change solution that was turnkey in seconds? I mean a 30 or 60-day lifestyle change program with recipes for every day, simple guidelines to follow, engaging and informative videos, advice about mindfulness, exercise and more.
What if all of this was available to the patient every day on the web, by email or in a smart phone app so it was almost foolproof success for the patient?
What if you you or your staff could deploy this and monitor all of the patients in one place, on the web or in your own app? You can do all of this, right now. And save millions of people from heart disease who you normally just prescribe medicine to and send off to their usual habits.
In honor of Heart Month and in an effort to help thousands of doctors, help millions of people, we’re launching DashDietRx™, the doctors’ turnkey solution to prescribing the DASH diet to patients.
This solution means less time explaining lifestyle issues to patients in the office yet allows you to give 100 times more information through your new automated digital health guidance system. Like the other 50 care plans in our library, the entire program is delivered daily to the patient after a 15-second enrollment process and then easily monitored by you and your staff.
And you can even charge a cash fee for this service, creating a new revenue stream your office.
But putting aside time savings and profit motives, just consider how a more comprehensive solution for the patient reduces risk and delivers better outcomes, which are now expected as Outcomes-Based Healthcare coverage continues to trend.
For the sake of millions of people at risk of death from heart disease and their family members, or just the handful you encounter each day, please check out the DashDietRx solution on BodySite and start doing something about the problem.
DashDietRx is nutritionist and cardiologist approved.
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For patients and their providers not familiar with the DASH Diet, read more here.
Start prescribing a comprehensive, easy to follow DASH Diet to patients today with DashDietRx™. It’s a completely turnkey solution to prescribing the DASH Diet to patients in just seconds and providing comprehensive, actionable lifestyle change instructions and support. You can manage patients’ lifestyle and it’s easier than you think. Try it free today.