Lifestyle Medicine Physician Dr. Melissa Mondala: "I Did Healing for Myself First"

<p>"I did healing for myself first, so I could become a better healer."</p><p>Before Dr. Melissa Mondala treated patients with lifestyle medicine, she needed it herself. She lived with IBS and reflux from her teens, and during her training at Loma Linda she was diagnosed with an atypical breast cancer. Changing how she ate, moved, slept and handled stress changed her health, and her husband's, and it reshaped how she practices medicine.</p><p>On this episode of HuMed, Dr. David Spiro talks with Dr. Mondala, a double-boarded family and lifestyle medicine physician, fellowship-trained in integrative psychiatry and integrative medicine, about the patients who shaped her: a young single mother of three with pancreatic cancer who kept running for her kids, and a fashion designer with an autoimmune disease who got her life back layer by layer.</p><p>They also discuss:</p><ul><li>Lifestyle medicine vs. integrative medicine, and where they overlap</li><li>Why ferritin matters even when hemoglobin looks normal</li><li>Her approach to adult behavior change: one habit, SMART goals and habit stacking</li><li>What medical training leaves out about nutrition and sleep</li><li>Advice for frustrated, burned-out physicians who feel stuck practicing reactive medicine</li></ul><p>Dr. Mondala earned her MD at Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University. She is co-founder of the Doctor Lifestyle Clinic, a direct care practice, and author of Embody Lifestyle Medicine: How to Build a Successful Direct Care Startup.</p><p>HuMed unveils the human side of medicine through honest conversations with physicians. Follow the show so you never miss an episode.</p><p>Chapters</p><p>00:00 Cold open</p><p>00:22 Introducing Dr. Melissa Mondala</p><p>02:25 Her own health story: IBS, reflux and food as poison</p><p>04:21 Loma Linda and the Blue Zones</p><p>05:30 A breast cancer diagnosis during training</p><p>07:00 The pillars of lifestyle medicine and her husband's autoimmune disease</p><p>08:49 The young mother with pancreatic cancer</p><p>13:53 Lifestyle medicine vs. integrative medicine</p><p>18:50 A patient with autoimmune disease and a difficult cycle</p><p>27:36 Why ferritin matters</p><p>31:45 What standard medical training leaves out</p><p>36:48 Night shifts, sleep and processed food</p><p>40:09 How to change adult behavior</p><p>44:12 Accountability, SMART goals and habit stacking</p><p>47:05 Lifestyle medicine and autism spectrum disorder</p><p>50:54 Advice for frustrated