Kerry Bertke: Making Progress with Preventative Medicine BACK

Published by AFAR

As I wrap up my time at UNC Chapel Hill and my on-site work at the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention I realize how fast eight weeks can go. I remain extremely excited about prevention medicine and believe even more strongly that speaking to individuals about diet and exercise, and offering methods to change poor habits, is important. In addition, my visit to Lenoir County and my interaction with the participants demonstrated how determined and successful a group of people can be when all are motivated and supported in their efforts to change lifestyle habits. This is a group of people at high risk for cardio vascular disease (CVD) for many reasons, but they seem committed to making progress through dietary changes and consistent physical activity in order to reduce that risk and make a healthier life for themselves and their families. It is important to them and the health of their community.

My work with this project also revealed that the aging population, in particular, can benefit greatly from lifestyle advice and intervention. According to research literature, despite the onset of health concerns with age many aging patients are more likely to have healthier dietary practices than younger adults, like eating more fruit and vegetable servings per day. They also are more likely to make the necessary changes in habit according to advice from health care professionals. This evidence makes the work of my mentor and those in his field even more important and valuable to the future of health care and the efforts to reduce the prevalence of not only cardiovascular disease, but other chronic diseases as well.

I feel privileged to have experienced the MSTAR opportunity at my alma mater, and to have met so many inspired researchers and physicians. I hope to stay informed on the progress of the cardiovascular disease lifestyle intervention and the involved participants in Lenoir County, North Carolina, and I look forward to seeing the additional research and developments that come from this project. I’m also excited to apply what I’ve seen and learned through this opportunity during my second year of medical school. With all they have to teach us, medical schools do not focus enough on nutrition, or even preventative medicine as a whole, so I hope to share some of what I learned through this project with my peers and also further explore its application to the aging adult population. I know this is a population that will be continuously growing as the Baby Boomers age, and a cohort that I will see often once I become a physician.

Participating in the MSTAR summer program is a privilege and I’m grateful to have had the company of so many other interesting and motivated medical students and researchers.

This is Kerry Bertke's second MSTARY Diary entry. Read the first here.