Lately, he's been practicing common sense, as well.
Not that the two don't necessarily go together, but Americans, in their headlong push for immediate solutions to medical problems, often want the former without the latter.
Trudeau provides primary health care for patients of all ages - “pediatrics to geriatrics” - but over the past year, part of his practice has focused on a condition known as “metabolic syndrome.”
And that's where the common sense comes in.
The condition has gone by a variety of names over the past decade or so - Syndrome X, Reaven's syndrome and insulin resistance syndrome.
All of those names are a fancy way of describing the dangerous convergence of obesity, high blood pressure, bad cholesterol numbers, elevated triglycerides and fasting hyperglycemia. Combine at least three of those factors and you've got metabolic syndrome.
“Really, when we say metabolic syndrome, we're saying you're on your way to diabetes or heart disease or maybe both,” said Trudeau.
In a country that is rapidly becoming chronically obese, experts say one in four Americans may have metabolic syndrome. That's a recipe for a lot of medical misery.
Some can blame genetics for part of the problem, but sedentary lifestyles and bad nutrition are just as important.
“As I've been doing my practice over the years, it kept occurring to me that so many of my patients are really suffering from the same thing,” Trudeau said. “And I kept telling them about changing their diet and getting more exercise and then I'd send them on their way.”
And what happened?
Mostly, nothing.
Turns out change is hard, and most people don't change without a plan and a way to stick to it.
“People go home, pledge to exercise, give it a go for a week or so and don't see a difference right away and stop,” Trudeau said. “And the truth, we're talking about transforming your lifestyle. That's not easy.”
Folks in places like Missoula and Billings can find programs for metabolic syndrome in local hospitals, but when you're out in the sticks a bit, help can be hard to come by.
Thus, the Mission Metabolic Weight Management Program.
First comes the diagnosis. Much of that is based on blood work that detects cholesterol levels, your fasting blood sugar count and triglycerides. But there's also an old-fashioned test conducted with a tape measure. If you're a man and measure 40 inches around the belly, that's a sign of metabolic syndrome. For women, the number is 35 inches.
Trudeau and his staff also do a body mass composition test, which detects muscle and fat, including the fat that is essential to your health and fat that is simply excessive.
“And that's what we go after,” said Trudeau.
But you won't be handed a diet and a workout plan and sent home. Instead, you're at the first stage of a five-week series of lectures on the syndrome, nutrition, food labeling and exercise.
“This is something where we are going to be holding your hand all the way through if that's what you need,” said Trudeau.
For people like Arleta Long, that sounds good. Long has a long family history of heart disease and diabetes, and she's always been overweight. She knew it, but until finding Trudeau's program, she hadn't found a way to fight that history. Now she's getting started.
“I am really excited to change my lifestyle,” she said. “For me, it's really probably a life or death situation.”
Trudeau works with Alyssa Schock, who is both a personal trainer and a nutritionist, but patients can hire their own trainer or work out on their own, as long as they stick with the program, which includes both weight training and cardio.
“For some people, it's hard to do it by themselves, so we really encourage them to have a workout partner at the very least,” Trudeau said.
Trudeau, who is a certified personal trainer as well, also has patients work out at the clinic's fitness facility in downtown St. Ignatius.
“We've got all the equipment here, but it's less important where they work out,” he said. “What's important is they start to understand the way nutrition and fitness work together.”
Some of Trudeau's patients opt for medications that lower cholesterol and blood pressure, but he urges all patients to adopt healthy lifestyle changes and not depend on medicine's silver bullet.
“Really, what we're facing as a country is a lifestyle problem,” Trudeau said. “We're not going fix that with a medical solution. We need to look at how we eat, how much we eat and how we exercise. Right now we're heading down a pretty dark road.”
For some, the road seems excessively dark. They've tried and failed to lose weight, and now view diabetes or heart disease as nearly inevitable.
“I can't tell them that it's easy to change their lives,” Trudeau said. “If it was, we wouldn't be in the shape we're in. But that's doesn't mean it's impossible. What we've seen here in the last year is that if you stick with the program, you've got a good chance of turning your life around.”
Get started
To learn more about the metabolic syndrome program at Missoula Valley Health Center, call 745-8765.
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