The Flex5 Lifestyle: How To Lose Weight And Regain Health

Tom Rifai, MD, FACP

Dr. Kahn, oh my gosh, I’m so nervous now, but I had a great teacher in you and so you know, let’s rock.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

Okay. I couldn’t agree more because you have so much to share. So maybe start, you know, you’re looking trim fit and people that follow you on social media. No, you’re also a heck of a muscle bound healthy individual. You know, you don’t just talk the talk. You walk the walk in your own life, but tell us a little bit about your history of binge eating disorder, issues with obesity, your prior role as a bodybuilder decades ago and how that influenced your own approach to patients advice, medical management. You know, give us a little on you. Crazy course.

Tom Rifai, MD, FACP

Well, thank you for that and no one’s ever really asked me in this fashion. So let me see if I can do the question justice. It is true. I have binge eating disorder. I almost lost my life to it at one point. I’ll never forget that in an apartment in Troy, Michigan and as you know, unfortunately my brother Basil, god rest his soul did not win that fight and we lost him to [inaudible] disorder. And I would say a mixture of fat shaming involved there as well. As a young guy, there was some bullying in my life and I got to know marshal arts and bodybuilding and you know, got a little bit too crazy in that world. But to be honest with you, it actually led me to Nathan Pritikin because as I was looking as a trainer said to me, you know, you know, you need to cut out all that salt and the doctor said to me, you know, you need to got fatty liver, you need to eat low fat. And I found this Pritikin menu at this wonderful little place, you know called Anita’s kitchen. 

He used to be in tally hall consortium of different little different ethnic food offerings. And I was taught that prediction was not a city in Europe as the young teen. I was asking the sister of Anita, hey, where’s Pritikin and Nathan Pritikin is a man, he wrote a book and you should read the book. I read the book and that really started me rooted in there as far as nutrition goes. But the body building actually aggravated my binge eating disorder. It’s so strict. And we see this by the way in some of these UFC fighters as one of the, that’s talking about his binge eating disorder. That kind of ultra strict approach really leads to a kind of pressure cooker without a release valve. And in the end of the day had a lot of issues when I grew up multiple divorces and with parents and so forth. And I was inspired by a psychologist who I still know today, who I sat across from and who really helped me a lot to become a psychologist. But I learned that was largely due to my mother inculcating me with the saying, all doctors are crazy, don’t become a doctor. Of course, you know, my mother was a physician, father was a physician and they came from the old country and thought, oh you’re an American kid now apple pie Chevrolet, be a Hollywood star, be a baseball player, do something else, but don’t, don’t do this hard work. But I found there was nothing else that they, that really drove my passion other than medicine. And it allowed me to practice psychology and nutrition and everything in exercise science and kind of wrap it all around and yeah, it’s my personal history. It drives me as well in a way that I think provides some insight that can help people and I hope we can through this discussion right here. 

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

Now. I think I probably first met you, you were, I would estimate about 25 were you in control of binge eating and eating disorders by that age because of the influence of Nathan Pritikin and others. Who were you still a volatile and unstable leader at that point?

Tom Rifai, MD, FACP

Well, I would say he didn’t do much to help my been cheating either. You know those 36 hour shifts? To be honest with you, I think at that time I was in my early thirties, so I’m 54 now and I want to be like you, I have a zero calcium score, but I want one like you in the sixties with zero calcium score. So absolutely, so not yet. I think I really started getting it together to be honest. When I left Michigan and I went to become the Associate Medical Director at Pritikin Longevity Center. Kind of the funny story of this is to be honest with you. And so I’m gonna put this into context. I think could hopefully be funny but also serious. I left you know, cheese behind when I left Detroit, I said, I can’t this is a drug, I can’t do this anymore.

And then I met Angela and Angela, my wife in Florida when I was there and she said, can we have some cheese in the house. She was the first person. I really outwardly admitted I have binge eating disorder. And I said, you know, I don’t think it’s gonna work for me. And she said, well, how about this or that? And the other thing and we, we tried it for a little while and one day she woke up and said, hey, where did all the cheese go? Said, I don’t know, honey, where do you think it went? So when she realized you’re not kidding about this, I said, no, you know my environment, which is one of the Flex5 keys, you are what you eat, you eat, which surrounds you. I gotta have that in order. I say that’s probably when my eating disorder came back, it came under some serious recovery control. Now say recovered, Joel, I’m gonna say recovering, recovering.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

So I’m sorry. Just so everybody understands because you’re telling such a deep and serious story. The cheese, you didn’t throw it out to protect your environment? The cheese went in you.

Tom Rifai, MD, FACP

That’s right, yeah. She said, hey look, my name was on the bag. I said, do you think the name on the bag is gonna stop me? I mean, I was waiting for 4 to 5 o’clock for you and then it went down my throat and it didn’t feel good about it at all. It just I have for me a need to manage my local environment. I’ve got enough willpower to handle outside. No, it’s just a little bit here and there. But when it’s something that’s chronically in your face, your home and your work, I would urge people to realize you are what you eat, but you eat what surrounds you and don’t blame the wolf. If the wolf bites you brought into the house, they can, it’s a dog. It’s not.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

Well let’s talk about that because you’ve developed a, I don’t know if the term is trademarked or patented program called the Flex5 lifestyle and environment as one of those five. You just alluded to that. I’m going to tell everybody towards the end where they can find out more about the Flex5 and learn with you in an upcoming masterclass. But tell us about that. People listening right now are struggling with weight and struggling with food addiction. What did you learn? What do you teach? How do they protect themselves in the house and out of the house?

Tom Rifai, MD, FACP

Well, that’s a great question. I mean, we know that so much of it has to do with surroundings. I mean those in blue zones, you move them to the United States and they Develop the same kind of disease in our environment as they would in the beautiful mountains of Sardinia where I had a chance to walk or the beautiful wooded areas and farmlands of Nicoya, Costa Rica. It’s a set up for success. You know, your vending machine in Sardinia is a prickly fruit tree to your left and a big tree to your right and you want to McDonald’s, it’s about 40 miles off the coast because we know the blue zones is all in the inter mountainous regions of Sardinia. So I urge people to understand, look if you have some non negotiables, they’re your non negotiables that’s fine but find the balance by not necessarily keeping that temptation in the house. In fact, I would strongly urge you to consider it a major issue. 

Now if there’s kids in the house and there’s a spouse who’s not as ready as you are, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing moving things even just slightly even up to a cupboard that’s higher that you can’t see frankly a bread basket on the other side of the table with a napkin over it is less. Well it’s sitting four inches from you with the napkin, exposing it. I just respect the environment when it comes to food environment bringing food with you when you go out for errands, you know, see all those pictures on my Facebook page of blueberries to my right next to my shifter and work that even traveling, you know just stop by the grocery store before you hit the hotel room. We have the Flex5 program in magnet. I can tell you many executives have said, I can’t believe I didn’t think of that is so simple. Yes because willpower is not a strategy, it can be improved a little bit. You probably heard the book willpower by, by Robert Tierney and Roy Baumeister. 

It’s a muscle, you know, you could get a little stronger. You can’t ask Arnold Schwarzenegger to bench a mack truck though respect that environment. The social environment is another component of environments as well as physical and when the social, when it comes to the social environment, we know from the English longitudinal study on down that if your life partner, whoever you’re living with, whether a spouse or otherwise is with you the odds of success go up, whether it’s quitting smoking, losing weight, physical activity, but there are ways to talk to people. It can’t be a demanding, it’s got to be a partnership that understands stages of readiness for change. A lot we discussed within the Flex5 is where is somebody at and how do you talk to them and pre contemplation, Contemplation, higher levels of readiness for change preparation and obviously action and maintenance.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

So let me ask you, I mean I’m somewhat familiar with your program, obviously you’re the expert but you know you teach discipline but without extremism And you’ve got some skill sets and why don’t you just two minutes on each, what is a 5% fun zone ™ , I mean I doc I know what I can’t eat and it’s out of the house. But what’s that? What is that without extremism.

Tom Rifai, MD, FACP

Okay, so the way that I work as a coach is I always remind you are the pilot. I’m just the navigator. You’ve invited me in here. Let’s get whatever your non-negotiables are down. It’s another way of saying it is 5% fun zone ™ . Whatever your non-negotiables are, I want to ease that anxiety. This is a journey and those negotiables may become more negotiable or non-negotiables may become more negotiable over time but don’t worry about that right now. What are your non-negotiables? Let’s get those down and realize that the dose makes the poison. If we’re at 60 to 65% of Americans in taking ultra highly processed food, refined food and we’re getting down dramatically. I don’t want you to be scared off by my saying it’s a zero tolerance approach. 

It really is a door in the face for too many people. Let’s just get that down and call it a not a guilty pleasure or a cheat day. Let’s, it’s a 5% fun zone ™ . Now it’s a risk but it’s a calculated risk. We’ve discussed it. It’s not a S.L.I.P.. It’s something that we’ve said, I would put the car context around probably you should go hunt and gather and not have it around you constantly if you want it that bad, go out and have a moment of silence, truly enjoy it, but let’s keep to the discipline. We’re not going to be extreme and say no, but in the house, you know, other than a Christmas or Hanukkah party or some rare exception, try not to have it just conceptually be understood. It should be a 5% funds own structure it in a way that it can be so that the healthy choice is the default choice and if you want it that bad, go get your pressure cooker release valve going and you know, we’ll work with you.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

It strikes me, I’ve studied a bit about Penn Jillette, the famous comedian of Penn and Teller and you know, he, he allows himself one out of 30 days to have fun with food and 29 days are quite rigid in his approach and he’s been able to maintain over 100 pounds healthy weight loss for years now and it’s glad it’s great. You’re teaching that what’s a  1-minute halftime ™, how does that balance?

Tom Rifai, MD, FACP

Yes, many people have a challenge with knowing when they’re comfortably full. Something I honestly has been embedded in my mind from one of my partners at Pritikin, Dr. J. Kenney, PhD in nutrition, a fellow of the American college of nutrition, was the concept of eating when hungry, and stopping when comfortably full. Now that’s just a basic, right, okay, what does that mean? It’s not only hungry yes or no. You know, we have a whole intuitive eating kind of approach to understanding mild moderate and def con levels of hunger, which I urge people, especially with binge eating disorder to avoid And then stopping when comfortably full. And it’s been made complicated, you know, put your fork down to 45 times. You know hate your life. How about one intervention that will really help people if you’re challenged with a restaurant, a buffet, you know, you’re at a party and the plate is you know much larger than you really think that it would ideally be and your normal is to finish when plate is empty. 

That’s your when you stop, not when you’re actually full, but when your plate is empty. Instead,  how about just a 1-minute halftime™, just a moment. It doesn’t have to be exactly a minute. But midway through a meal just put your fork and your knife down, just one time, take a sip of water and sense “how am I feeling right now?” And remember you’ll probably be fuller in 10 to 15 minutes. So are you gonna die if you save the other half? And the other thing too is that I think you know intuitively, is that if let’s just say we have for simplicity sake, we have a five or 600 calorie meal in front of us and it’s going to keep us full for five hours. It’s not gonna be 2.5 hours of fullness from the first half and 2.5 hours of fullness from the second half. You’re gonna start getting diminishing returns once you start to eat beyond fullness. So the idea of stopping when you’re comfortably full, you may be more of a small frequent feeder. And we see this, you know, people who tend to maintain the best weight loss eat about five times per day according to the National Weight Control Registry, but by the end of the day you’ll end up eating less if you learn how to stop when comfortably full. And that 1-minute halftime ™  is a simple, powerful technique. That’s not complicated, that we found great success with The Flex5 Lifestyle. 

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

It’s great information and one last one, the S.L.I.P. Technique ™ . I mean that day you ate all the cheese. Does that the response fall under the umbrella of the S.L.I.P. Technique ™ ?

Tom Rifai, MD, FACP

Nobody’s ever asked me that way about this. Exactly. So a  S.L.I.P. is not a 5% fun zone ™.  5% fun zone ™ is a planned and accepted risk. A  S.L.I.P. is a kind of cognitive dissonance scenario. Something happened that you really didn’t plan. Obviously that’s why we call it a  S.L.I.P. Which stands for stop S,  look L investigate I and plan P. It’s a mindset that says, look, we didn’t die. We stopped it. Whether you stopped yourself or it’s over. Let’s not freak out. That’s the stop. Look, let’s look now. No black and white. Let’s look objectively and then investigate the situation for where there can be a tweak in the cycle for a similar future situation, which we will then plan. The planning is really simple. I take SMART planning and simplify it too because you know, specific measurable, actionable, realistic time bound. I can’t, I mean, I had to work to memorize that. I just want simple, I just want a specific excuse me. And realistic for a plan that is going to push you a bit, but you should be confident enough on a scale of 1 to 10, that it’s at least around a seven or eight. 

We don’t want a 10 because come on, let’s nudge a little bit, but we don’t want something so unrealistic and high minded, it’s going to be a two or three and fail. Let’s find a plan and then rinse and repeat. Imagine this. We also say progress is perfection. This is not a crisis, is an opportunity. You’re talking about one of the most powerful skill sets to learn lifestyle. It’s equivalent to getting a PhD or a black belt or getting a gold medal on the balance beam. If you’re aware of anyone Dr. Kahn that has gotten a gold medal on the balance beam coming right out of the womb, jumping on the balance beam, getting their gold medal on wide world of sports, having never fallen off. Please let me know that’s gotta be some case report. S.L.I.P.s are going to happen in the process of lifestyle change. It’s okay, let’s embrace them. If not jump up and down for joy about them.  Just apply the S.L.I.P. Technique ™ and rinse and repeat. Because that plan may work, it may not work. Or it may partially work, but that’s the joy of learning the skills. You’re becoming a mixed martial artist of healthy lifestyle with the S.L.I.P. Technique ™,

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

I think those are profoundly helpful comments and there’s so much deeper you can go and you’re going to offer an opportunity for people to learn more with you, which will shout out at the end here, you know, nobody in this wonderful summit on reversing your heart disease naturally has talked about physical activity but specifically N.E.A.T(Non-Exercise-Activity- Time). So you and I both share a joy of N.E.A.T. I know you are a muscle bound wonderful guy, but you also just do regular stuff, tell people what that is.

Tom Rifai, MD, FACP

Well not not nearly as muscle bound as I used to be, but I like to keep that up a bit. But my main activity is N.E.A.T, if we’re to use the analogy of icing versus cake. I like exercise, I do. I love it. I’m a gym freak, I’m a gym rat. But that to me is icing. What we see in the blue zones is this really purposeful regular movement broken up throughout the day that I call non exercise activity time. Now for some of the scientists out there, the T stands for thermogenesis. People aren’t gonna understand what that word means. Non exercise activity time is based on the data, we’re seeing that every little bit of physical activity counts. You know, we used to think it had to be 30 minutes of continuous physical activity. But we’re now seeing that every little bit of movement counts. Even a recent study showing two minutes of walking after a meal reduces the risk of diabetes. 

Every bit you can count whether it’s taking a call while walking, parking a little bit further, taking the actual walkway versus the moving sidewalk at the mall or the airport. All this non exercise activity time that accumulates to what would probably for the average American, even just adding 2000 steps over our 5000 average. If we looked at the cardio study, Americans average about 5000 steps and around seven or 8000 you start to see maybe more other quality of life improvement beyond that, but at around separate 1000 mortality risk reduction is substantial. So it’s not dramatic, about 100 steps per minute. You can do a 10, 2 minutes that walks, you can do 5, 4 minute walks, whatever the idea is, you can build non exercise activity time into the day. We actually see where people exercise aggressively in the morning and sit all day. 

They have trouble controlling their appetite. We know that intense exercise can rev up appetite in many people. Seems logical. We’re also seeing observation from the US to the Asia that chronic sitting also seems to increase appetite. You combine the two, you may have an issue exercising and then staying regularly active in the day and keep the metabolism going. But that meat goes under the radar but hunger hormones and it also has a metabolic effect on insulin sensitivity and muscle. I mean we have millions of pre diabetics in the U. S. who have normal BMI. And the more and more I see of them they all not all but many have chronic sitting. I’m Lena did I do everything else? But you see they are sitting for 8 to 10 hours straight a day, sometimes almost placid with roots growing into that seat. And I can understand it. I’ve seen myself, you know grow those routes at times. I just have to break it. That is the power of neat muscle. Is a very what have you done for me lately, tissue doctor.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

I couldn’t agree more. Probably most people have heard a statement that’s been around for about a decade. That sitting is the new smoking. But I think the data keeps indicating that that actually is a reasonable conclusion. I might give you the same amount of increased risk of metabolic and cardiovascular disease as the other bad habits. So, thank you for sharing that talk a little bit about accountability. I mean I want Dr. Tom’s program and I want to succeed this time and I’m willing to secure my environment and add some non exercise activity time and studying nutrition. But who am I reporting to? And how important is that? How does that work for a successful program?

Tom Rifai, MD, FACP

Right. So that is. It could be at the lowest level. What am I reporting to if you want to use a thermometer or a blood pressure cuff or a scale, which is kind of a useful idiot. I can expand a little bit on where scales can be helpful and maybe possibly problematic. Obviously the next level is to join a group type program whether it’s at the hospital or otherwise. And then the ultimate is to engage with the coach, whether it’s psychologist or lifestyle medicine specialist or some type of a trainer or otherwise. Because we do know that the transformation phase, you know when somebody really transforms and let’s say over six months has eliminated insulin resistance. Blood pressure’s dropped off all their blood pressure medications, cholesterol triglycerides. 

Great improvements from that point on if we were to leverage for instance the national weight control registry, it typically takes about two years of maintenance before the odds of long term success start to really go up and there’s less and less risk for relapse or whatever terminology we want to use for it in that time. The tracing the change with some accountability. Now compassionate accountability. Not all due respect to Jillian Michaels and the biggest loser show somebody whipping you and making you vomit on a treadmill. But one that is engaging that you really want to be part of whether it’s a group a person or even an exciting self tracking device, we know that external accountability does provide a transition to someone becoming internally accountable. 

I mean Jack Lalane, I’ll get a chance to meet his wife is going to get a posthumous award for lifetime achievement as well as her at the American College of lifestyle Medicine this month he was known for being a junk food junkie. Dr. Paul Bragg turned him around, kind of poached him and got him all revved up. He needed even external accountability. But we know the story as well. On the other end food, Jack, he was the story goes and Elaine confirmed it for me on social media and I can’t wait to meet her. That he was frustrated in the city where he was probably, I think giving a motivational talk and he couldn’t find a gym of his. Like he’s around the room, I can’t find a gym to work out. And Elaine’s just said, Jack, why don’t you just skip today? Nobody’s gonna know. And Jack, within half a second set, I’ll know he got to the point where he was internally accountable, but that doesn’t happen overnight. It takes some time that data from the national weight control registry and other complex metabolic matters show that some external accountability to help foster that change from not only transformation, but then that transition is probably about two years to maintenance really is improved. The likely odds of success are improved. If you are if you have some willing accountability, some program person or even devices that you’re willing to be accountable to. I think people are probably better, but people self tracking sometimes really engage with their technology enough that it’s almost like a person. 

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

Doesn’t sound like there’s too many shortcuts to weight loss. It’s of hard work and a plan and accountability and environment and a goal and fitness. I mean, why is obesity, I mean everybody says the same statement that 75% of Americans are overweight or obese and absolutely shocking number but reported over over in different data sets. Why is it so intransigent? Why is there no simple solution and why are we stuck with, you know, all the diseases that come out of obesity?

Tom Rifai, MD, FACP

Well, you’re right. It does take someone who’s ready for change and ready to apply the principles of living. These five keys, if you will in the skills and knowledge in a modern environment. Otherwise you can move to an environment like a blue zone or the island that tom Hanks was on for the movie castaway and you can have all of your with the study of the Aborigines in Australia where they moved them back out into the into the brush and solve your problems that way the environment here and you I think you knew this answer. But you’re asking me out of kindness is such a setup for disease. There is CRRAHP if you will excuse me. But CRRAHP right calorie rich, refined and highly processed food everywhere. I mean when we were shopping Antonio and Ileana and bye bye baby all due respect to bye bye baby great store. You know, we bought some stuff from, they’ve got the candy right there at the lower level so that mom and dad can be having their kids pulling at their leg. 

We know what it’s like at the checkout at grocery stores. There’s blurs of different whatever colored arches everywhere. It’s just a set up and we are not designed for that. We’re still the human genome project. I say would to say we’re probably pretty much the same as 10,000 years ago. Were built to impulsively eat when available and it’s so available and we have removed physical activity requirement for life. So we’re not going to get out of this until we slowly but surely change the food supply around. And it’s rather stark and dramatic because I think it was Senator Harkin admission to group to ultimately one of the components of it was a question if everyone, You know, shifted to eating 5-7 servings of fruits and vegetables tomorrow in the United States based on how few are, we wouldn’t currently be able to have the the amount to feed everyone. Not that we couldn’t, we could, but we’ve got 30% of our arable land just being dedicated to corn. And I’m not talking about healthy corn on the cob. You know what I’m talking about what we do to corn. So it’s gonna be a long haul with education and pressures that will eventually turn the food supply around. I believe there are certain food suppliers and restaurants. I won’t name any that are doing actually a good job and noticing that they can sell healthier fast food. It’s gonna take a while. This environment is a set up for less physical activity and a lot of very calorie dense, refined crap foods around this is hard for people to able to handle that. And I think we see the result of that in America sadly.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

Yeah. Let me just touch base on one more area on your really, really innovative Flex5 structure. But mind matters. What does that mean for those listening right now that are struggling with a food addiction, a weight issue, weight and pre diabetes or type two diabetes issue. What role does the mind play? And what is your program do to address that?

Tom Rifai, MD, FACP

Well, thanks for asking. You know, short of moving again to an environment that would be a set up for the default choice being the healthy choice. You’ll notice that mind matters is the top key, whichever. The two variations of the pentagon’s that you’ve seen. Mind matters is the top because it’s the door number one, we softened the term, It really means psychology, but we didn’t want to put psychology up there. I like the term mind matters. So maybe that’s some a bit of marketing and wording psychology in a way that doesn’t make people feel like we’re claiming that they are diseased per se. But mind matters involves mental health, mindfulness skills and mindset. The first issue is of course in mind matters is someone ready. I mean, trying to talk someone into doing something that’s good for them, but they’re in the pre contemplated stage. They just came in for this severe cough. The doctor notices their triglycerides are 550 the first thing the doctor wants to talk about, the triglycerides. Sorry, you’re probably gonna lose trust with that person. You can take care of their problems. I’m very concerned about this. 

Can we discuss? It is and ask permission and so forth. But you have to be mind matters ready. One, two if someone is ready, we really want them to dig in it at least at some point soon. Not really from the get go. You just there’s too many other things going on your mind, but to determine your true why? And you know what we mean? Here. I mean, it’s not just a well, I want to get off pills. Well, to me the question there is great why, Why? Why? Why? Until they find out what’s truly the reason they need and value health that can be there for the goal that drives up not not the scale, which has so many, which can be a tool on the side, but which is not a true value based approach. And then within my matters, we teach all those skills, hunger management, hunger skills. We talked about the  1-minute halftime ™, the S.L.I.P. Technique ™, the 5% funds own concept and all of these with a positive psychology approach have been able to really help people rather than just focusing on food and physical activity or dare I say bye exercise, acknowledging, you know, you may have passed a trauma, we respect that. I have seen unbelievably and I’m sure you have horrifying things that have happened in people’s past that drive their behaviors that we need to acknowledge and validate and then help them with or find another professional that does, there’s my matters 

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

You know, probably the whole shebang to explore why their behaviors this way as much as we can prior trauma as you said. And I think it’s amazing when you go deep with that, how people feel good to open up and share with you that a doctor cares about their childhood or their marriage or their work stress and the rest. So you’ve coached, I mean, I’ve seen you over the years, you’ve coached individuals, you’ve influenced an entire medical system, Henry ford hospital system or health system, a very large system in Detroit and now you’re doing it in the workplace, What’s the program going on in Magna and is it’s the Flex5 program you’ve introduced?

Tom Rifai, MD, FACP

Yes, and I’d love to give a lot of detail, but I can’t except to say that we certainly have introduced the Flex5 at levels to get things started and it’s working very well and we have lots of plans to evolve and grow in the future. What I can say is this, you know, what one thing about magnets, their mantra, one of their true highest values from the beginning and the with the founding with Frank’s trona was health and their CEOs from Frank to Don Walker to now swami coda Gary had been very interested. Now they may admit, look, we’re not experts, we brought you in because we want you to help us figure this out, but we have that value and we want to bring it from the top to the bottom or I’m probably better for me to say all across the spectrum of Magna and it’s gonna be a wonderful story. I’m looking forward to continuing on the journey and maybe next year we’ll do this again. I’ll be able to tell you more.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

All right, well, we plan to do this summit again and we’ll bring you back and I have a sense a lot of people listening, I want to know more about you and I happen to know that you are leading a masterclass coming up relatively around the same time of this summit DPM.drtomrifai.com. Tell us what people are going to learn and the master class that you’re leading, I think it looks fantastic and honestly I think I’m gonna participate myself.

Tom Rifai, MD, FACP

Well, that’s an honor DPM and we originally called it due to my course at Harvard nutrition, the metabolic syndrome and that credibility in that arena, the diabetes prevention masterclass, that’s where DPM came from. But it really is a approach for all metabolic health issues, whether it’s, you know, lipids, blood pressure, weight management and if that’s a little bit hard to remember, just google the Flex5 lifestyle, it will be the top finding you’ll see on google the Flex5, all one word, Flex5, numeral five lifestyle and what they’ll get is a library of content that is structured in a way that teaches just about everything they want to know about their metabolic baseline. 

How do you understand your lipids? How do you understand your kidney function? What’s a coronary calcium score? Why is that important etcetera, as well as even some discussion about medications. I urge people not to worry too much about those first lessons, come back to them if you like, because then there’s going to be five modules on one of mine matters, one on nutrition, one on activity environments and accountability. And then 1/7 module, that’s a review wrap up now that content is complemented by the membership in my private Facebook community where I weekly and I will be right after this answering questions for students and alumni who’ve taken the Flex5. 

Now, this private community is not my Dr. Tom Rifai, MD, FACP Facebook page, anyone’s welcome to like or follow that. That’s just that’s great. Public free content. But as far as being part of that Dr. Tom’s Five Keys community. The private page, that’s where people who are actively in or are alumni of the Flex5 master class and that way they can get the the theory from the video content was great to do that prior to joining Magna all recorded at Oakland University and also have questions that they can ask me in a private group setting. Excellent.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

Okay, and again, just if people are writing this down DPM.drtomrifai.com It’s an absolutely beautiful website and I think you’re going to be very excited to consider, you know, upgrading your life with the kind of experience and coaching and practical information that Dr. Tom Rifai’s brought us here today. Well, I am super super happy that we took the time and you took the time away from your family to discuss this because I think these are the tools, we all want to be successful. We all want to reverse heart disease naturally, but unless we can get a handle on nutrition and our addictions and our past trauma In our environment, you know, it can’t just be pharmacology, it’s lifestyle, you’re a lifestyle.com lifestyle doc. So thank you so much. Any place else you want people to go to, I know 2023, I think we’ll be seeing a book come out.

Tom Rifai, MD, FACP

Well, we hope so. That’s part of the plan as well. The Flex5 book. But you really, honestly right now, if you’re just interested in the public, the most active place, am still is facebook Dr. Tom Rifai, MD, FACP. And if you want to deep dive, yes. Dpm.drtomrifai.com,  D R T O M R I F A I dot com (dpm.drtomrifai.com) . Now, if you want just the nutrition module, DPM.drtomrifai.com/nutrition, I would urge you to do it all, but some people just want the nutrition. We’ve got that opportunity for them as well.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

Fair enough. Alright, well, I give you a big, big digital hug for taking your time and making this a really great summit. Thank you so much.

Tom Rifai, MD, FACP

Dr. Kahn, My pleasure. Thank you sir.