20/02/2024
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Healthy People, Healthy Planet is a new virtual speaker series designed for faculty, staff and learners in the Queen’s community to promote healthy behavior with a focus on the intersection of lifestyle and planetary health to achieve optimal wellbeing. Six sessions will take place throughout April covering topics such as healthy sleep, diet, sustainability and physical activity.

Register for one or more of these free, virtual events. Use this form if you have a question, or are interested in supporting this project.

six speakers head shot - healthy people, healthy planet speaker series: changing the paradigm

Are sustainable and healthy diets for all possible?

April 3 at 12 – 1 pm

Learning objectives:

  1. Describe a healthy diet in broad terms

  1. Describe a sustainable diet in broad terms

  1. Quantify the degree to which premature mortality could be prevented by global adherence to the EAT-Lancet Commission dietary targets

Speaker: Dr. Walter Willett is a physician and epidemiologist and Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. He served as Chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard for 25 years. Read more about Dr. Willett.

A primer on sleep for healthcare professionals: A lifestyle medicine approach

April 11 at 5 – 6 pm

Learning Objectives:

  1. Identify the components of healthy sleep

  1. Discuss the physiological & psychological role of sleep

  1. Explain the bidirectional connection between sleep & health

  1. Identify the most common sleep disorders & treatment

  1. Review approaches for sleep for the healthcare professional (on-call and shift work) and young families

  1. Describe the keys to optimal sleep

Speaker: Param Dedhia, MD, is a curious internal medicine doctor and passionate integrative medicine practitioner. As a sought-after speaker and physician, he translates medical science into our everyday lives. Read more about Dr. Dedhia

What if it comes in a pill? Physical activity as a chronic disease ‘cure’ for the 21st century

April 17 at 12 – 1 pm

Learning objectives:

  1. Appreciate the health benefits of exercise

  1. Gain Insight into why aerobic exercise and resistance training (weightlifting) are equally important for health

  1. Understand the difference between physical activity and exercise

  1. Learn why exercise is the primary means of maintaining health as we age

Speaker: Dr. Stuart Phillips is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and a member of the School of Medicine at McMaster University. He is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Skeletal Muscle Health. Read more about Dr. Phillips

Animal agriculture and the global impact on the environment, food security, and social justice

April 22 (Earth Day) at 12 – 1 pm

Learning objectives:

  1. Understand the mechanisms by which animal products have a higher ecological impact than high quality plant protein foods

  1. Identify parameters of global ecology that are predominantly impacted by animal agriculture

  1. Describe how food safety is impacted by animal agriculture

  1. Discuss the adequacy of plant protein in human nutrition

  1. Describe the pandemic and infectious disease implications of animal agriculture

  1. Review of common misinformation tactics used by animal agriculture industry

Speaker: Dr. Tushar Mehta completed medical school and residency at the University of Toronto. Currently, he practices Emergency Medicine in Brampton, ON and participates in international health projects. Read more about Dr. Mehta

A unifying theory of lifestyle medicine

April 25 at 12 – 1 pm

Learning objectives:

  1. Describe and understand the biological mechanisms common to many chronic diseases

  1. Describe and understand how diet and lifestyle choices affect each of these biological mechanisms—for better and for worse

  1. Understand the hypothesis of why these lifestyle changes may stop or reverse the progression of early-stage Alzheimer’s disease and the randomized, controlled clinical trial in progress to test this hypothesis

Speaker: Dr. Dean Ornish is the founder and president of the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute and Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSF and Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSD. For over 45 years, he has directed clinical research demonstrating, for the first time, that comprehensive lifestyle changes may begin to reverse even severe coronary heart disease, without drugs or surgery. Read more about Dr. Ornish.

What’s missing from medicine: The lifestyle medicine solution

April 29 at 12 – 1 pm

Learning objectives:

  1. Discuss the origins of scientific evidence supporting diet and lifestyle choices influencing the incidence of multiple sclerosis

  1. Describe the science of epigenetics, and its possible role in chronic disease outcomes

  1. Understand the concepts of pathogenesis and salutogenesis in the current medical education model

Speaker: Dr. Saray Stancic is triple board certified in Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases, and Lifestyle Medicine. For the past 20 years, Dr. Stancic has worked to promote the power of preventive/lifestyle medicine on a global scale and bring needed change to how we train physicians. Read more about Dr. Stancic