Comprehensive Center for Women's Medicine

FirstLine Therapy

The FirstLine Therapy Difference—It Works

There are three key reasons that make FirstLine Therapy® (FLT) different than conventional lifestyle programs:

1. FLT is about more than just weight loss.
• FLT can help you lose unhealthy fat while retaining healthy, lean muscle.
• FLT integrates body composition testing (fat & lean tissue ratios)-because being thin doesn't necessarily mean you're healthy.
• An imbalance in body composition (gaining too much fat or losing too much muscle) can lead to serious health problems such as high blood pressure, altered cholesterol levels, etc.
• Loss of muscle results in loss of ability to burn calories, which makes it much more difficult to maintain weight loss over time.
• FLT focuses on lifestyle factors that are the underlying cause of many health problems.

2. The FLT eating plan is different.
• Most diets focus on NOT eating-not eating fat, not eating carbs, or just plain not eating much of anything. With most diets, success is based primarily on will power.
• The FLT eating plan emphasizes the need to eat, and to eat frequently.
• The focus is on eating THE RIGHT KIND OF FOODS-the right kind of fat, the right kind of carbohydrates, and the right kind of protein-all in the right portion size.
• FLT incorporates a low-glycemic-index eating plan based on the latest scientific research that will help you maintain stable blood sugar and energy levels.
• According to recent studies, low-glycemic diets are more effective than lowfat diets in treating obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes.
• People report less hunger and more energy, making it much easier to stick with the program.

3. FLT incorporates medical foods and dietary supplements.
• Using appropriate medical foods and dietary supplements as part of this program can improve the effectiveness of the program for you and help you achieve your health goals.
• Medical foods are designed to address the unique nutritional needs of patients with specific health concerns.
• Dietary supplements provide targeted nutritional support for specific functions, such as healthy blood cholesterol or blood sugar levels, joint function and mobility, or healthy hormone metabolism.

4. FLT has been demonstrated to be effective in controlled clinical trials.
• Most other diets have not.

Chronic Illness: Our Greatest Health Challenge
“As a nation, we are spending too little on preventing [chronic] conditions, and we are losing too many lives. That's because right now we've got it backwards...We need to refocus our efforts on preventing disease, illness, and injury.”
— U.S. Surgeon General, January 2007.

Most of us know someone (perhaps ourselves) who has been affected in some way by a chronic disease. Chronic, or ongoing, diseases—such heart disease, cancer, and diabetes—are among the leading causes of death and disability in the United States. Chronic diseases account for 7 of every 10 deaths and affect the quality of life of 90 million Americans.1 Each year, over $700 billion is spent on diabetes, heart disease, and cancer alone.2-4

Therapeutic lifestyle changes such as diet, exercise, and stress management are now recommended as the "first line of therapy" for treating chronic illness or reducing the risk of other serious health conditions.

FirstLine Therapy® is a Therapeutic Lifestyle Change (TLC) program that can enhance your health and prevent disease.
It can help you address a wide range of health conditions as well as other lifestyle related health concerns and symptoms. These include:
• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Diabetes
• Arthritis
• Osteoporosis
• Overweight/Obesity
• High cholesterol
• High blood pressure
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Fatigue
• Hormone imbalance
• Stress-related symptoms
• Poor memory or lack of mental clarity
• And many others

FirstLine Therapy® is about making choices every day that will enable you to achieve a long, full, and healthy life.
Ask your healthcare practitioner about FirstLine Therapy today.

REFERENCES
1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp. Accessed January 10, 2007
2. American Diabetes Association. Direct and Indirect Costs of Diabetes in the United States. Available at http://diabetes.org/diabetes-statistics/cost-of-diabetes-in-us.jsp. Accessed 5/7/07.
3. American Heart Association. Available at http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4475. Accessed 5/7/07
4. American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts & Figures 2007. Atlanta, Ga. 2007

Scientific Evidence for FirstLine Therapy® and TLC
While weight loss plans routinely tout "scientific evidence" to back their claims, the fact is, any diet that results in a calorie deficit will produce weight loss. But FirstLine Therapy isn’t about just losing weight, it’s about making choices every day that will enhance your health and prevent disease, enabling you to achieve a full, healthy life.
A wealth of scientific evidence tells us that adopting habits that are healthy can delay the onset of illness in old age and extend years of good health. Here are the results of just some of the major studies affirming the advantages of FirstLine Therapy and the benefits of therapeutic lifestyle changes in general and the advantages of :

The Advantages of FirstLine Therapy
• In a recent study conducted by the Functional Medicine Research Center, the research arm of Metagenics, FirstLine Therapy was shown to improve important cardiovascular disease risk factors in patients with metabolic syndrome, more significantly than the same low-glycemic-load diet and exercise alone.1
• In a 12-week, 2-arm prospective clinical trial of postmenopausal women (53 subjects completing the trial), FirstLine Therapy was shown to effectively address 14 markers of cardiovascular health—significantly better than a leading American Heart Association dietary plan with exercise.2

The Benefits of Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes
• A study published in the American Journal of Cardiology concluded that many patients with conventional risk factors for CHD can experience lowered risk without mediations within 12 weeks of starting a therapeutic lifestyle change program, refuting the notion that intensive lifestyle modification is not worth the effort.3
• In a similar study of 337 adults ranging in age from 43 to 81 years published by the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, a lifestyle modification program was found to be an effective nutrition and physical activity intervention in the short term, and has the potential to notably decrease the risks associated with common chronic disease in the long term.4
• The PREMIER multi-center clinical trial published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute found that individuals with above-optimal blood pressure, including stage 1 hypertension, can apply multiple lifestyle changes that lower blood pressure and reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease.5
• A randomized, single-blind 3-year study of 180 patients with metabolic syndrome concluded that a Mediterranean-style diet ( emphasizing whole grains, fish, vegetables, and fruit) might be effective in reducing the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome and its associated cardiovascular disease risk.6
• A cohort study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society of 3,051 men age 60-79 years with no diabetes mellitus or diagnosis of CHD found that modification of lifestyle factors, even later in life, has considerable potential for primary prevention of metabolic syndrome.7

REFERENCES
1. Lerman RH, Bland JS, Darland G, Lamb JJ, Minich DM, Schiltz, Tripp ML. Supplementation with a novel selective kinase response modulator (SKRM) nutraceutical and medical food significantly enhances the benefits of a diet and exercise program in subjects with metabolic syndrome. Functional Medicine Research Center, the clinical research arm of Metagenics, Inc., Gig Harbor, WA. [In preparation].
2. Lukaczer D, Liskak DJ, Lerlman RH, Darland G, Schiltz B, Tripp M, Bland JS. Effect of a low glycemic index diet with soy protein and phytosterols on CVD risk factors in postmenopausal women. Nutrition 2006;22(2):104-13.
3. Gordon NF , Salmon RD, Franklin BA, et al. Effectiveness of therapeutic lifestyle changes in patients with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and/or hyperglycemia. Am J Cardiol 2004;94(12):1558-61.
4. Aldana SG, Greenlaw RL, Diehl HA, Salberg A, Merrill RM, Ohmine S, et al. Effects of an intensive diet and physical activity modification program on the health risks of adults. J Am Diet Assoc 2005;105(3):371-81.
5. Appel J, Champagne CM, Harsha DW, Cooper LS, Obarzanek E, Elmer PJ, et al. Effects of comprehensive lifestyle modification on blood pressure control. Main results of the PREMIER clinical trial. JAMA 2003;289(16):2083-93.
6. Esposito K, Marfella R, Ciotola M, et al. Effect of a Mediterranean-style diet on endothelial dysfunction and markers of vascular inflammation in the metabolic syndrome. JAMA 2004;292:1440-1446.
7. Wannamethee SG, Shaper AG, Whincup PH. Modifiable lifestyle factors and the metabolic syndrome in older men: effects of lifestyle changes. J Am Geriatr Soc 2006;54(12):1909-14.

Information obtained from www.metagenics.com.
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