Circle of Support

As a board-certified primary care physician, Shaun Hines, DO, has seen a lot of patients with chronic health issues like diabetes and high blood pressure. Not long into his career, there was one question he started to hear over and over: "How can I get off these medications?"

Sharing his patients' eagerness to move beyond prescription refills, Dr. Hines began to focus on tackling the root causes of their health issues: lifestyle choices like diet and exercise. In 2018, while working at Bladen Medical Associates, he began inviting them to "Walk With a Doc."

"I would meet them every Saturday morning, on a little walking path," he said. "And we'd go at the pace of the patient, maybe one or two miles, and talk about their health."

Dr. Hines was pleased to see this kicked off some real progress among regular participants. But soon the COVID-19 pandemic was raging, and he noticed a troubling trend among the patients who continued to struggle.

"My healthier patients who got COVID recovered more quickly, with few to no long-term effects," he said, "but then a lot of the people who were not exercising, with poor dietary habits, they were the ones who suffered the worst with COVID. And I was treating the same recurring issues without actually fixing the real problem."

Determined to guide patients to lasting change, Dr. Hines got to work and earned board certifications in obesity medicine and lifestyle medicine, two specialties that focus on the chronic disease of obesity and the persistent habits that influence it. The process gave him a deeper understanding of his patients' problems and some evidence-based paths to solving them.

"I learned strategies and methods to getting patients off medications," he said. "And I became more focused on treating them with not just exercise, but food too."

He began sharing his nutrition expertise at health fairs and other community events and now teaches a weekly class at Cape Fear Valley Primary Care - Avon Street that covers everything from nutrition labels to macronutrients to how habits are affected by stress and sleep.

"Then we have an informal discussion where they can ask questions and learn more," said Dr. Hines. "And that turns into a circle of support, where they are learning from each other's experiences and cheering each other on."

While each class is packed with useful information, Dr. Hines said the big picture is something most patients already know. He's just there to provide some guidance.

"It's not a matter of me convincing them that they should exercise and watch what they eat," he said. "They already know that, but what they don't always know is how to go about it."

Dr. Hines said being able to connect with patients on this level is one of the reasons he went into medicine and why he became a doctor of osteopathy.

"It's whole-person care," he said. "It's about diving deeper, getting to know the person you're treating. That helps with rapport, but it also helps you to know you're not missing anything when you're treating a patient."

It boils down to a guiding principle Dr. Hines said he has carried through most of his life when it comes to people, and especially patients:

"Be slow to speak," he said, "and quick to listen."