Introduction

Physician burnout numbers soared in 2021 to 63% and although they have since dropped, as of 2023 physician burnout numbers were still reported at 50%.*

A study from 2021** took a look at physician burnout from a neurobiological perspective. Specifically with the adaptations in the brain which occur. The authors showed a decline in prefrontal cortex function which was negatively
impacted from the chronic stress of their career. The link the researchers showed was that as what they called “uncontrollable stress” increases so does symptoms of burnout such as lack of motivation, fatigue, and arousal modulators such as dopamine, acetylcholine, and norepinephrine.

The neural connections of grey matter found in the PFC disconnect during times of chronic stress (and in this case from the uncontrollable stress) detoriate, but the good news is they can be restored.

The restoration of the neural connections of grey matter in the PFC can be accomplished by having consistent activities in your daily and weekly routine which decrease the uncontrollable stress.

There are contributors of uncontrollable stress from you career in which you need help from administrators, leadership, and the health care system as a whole. There’s not much you can do there.

However, there is a lot you can do in your personal life to make you more resilient to the stress. You can do things which enhance your mood, your energy, and how your body feels and performs.

This is where a customized workout and lifestyle program tailored to a physicians needs, goals, and lifestyle can make a significant impact.

We’re going to explore a case study of one of my clients, who is a surgeon, who successfully mitigated the symptoms of physician burnout and transformed his body by implementing a custom program which he consistently executed for 6 months (and currently still is executing).

Challenges My Client Faced When We First Started Working Together

Client Name: Matthew R.
Career: Cardiac Surgeon
Family: Married (to a surgeon) with 2 kids

Matthew was referred to me from a fellow Cardiac Surgeon who I successfully helped rehab an L5-S1 disc herniation.

Biggest Challenges:

1. Low energy due to long, demanding hours at the hospital. Both he and his wife are surgeons, and with two young children at home, this made for a high demand for his energy and focus and the result was Matthew only feeling like a fraction of himself.
2. He was making the time for his mental & physical health, but found it incredibly difficult to be consistent with it week-to week due to lack of time to get the workouts done which he thought he should be doing. Some weeks he would work out 4 times and the next week he might only workout once. This lead to fluctuations in mood, energy levels, and how severe his aches & pains were weekto-week.
3. He was dealing with chronic low back pain which would be exacerbated by operating. This negatively impacted his quality of life outside of the OR including the activities he could and couldn’t do with his kids.

Matthew loved going to the gym, but often times he found it difficult. Making the time was tough, but even when he could make the time, knowing what to do while he was there left him frustrated.

He would push himself hard in the gym when he was in there, but often times this would leave him feeling more depleted than he initially felt before going to the gym.

This left little energy to keep up with his 2, young children and all of their activities when he was at-home. He noticed his lack of energy made him less present with his work and family life. In addition to that, he noticed he was more irritable which didn’t always make him the most pleasant person to be around. He simply couldn’t afford to keep going at the rate he was going, otherwise he knew he would completely burnout.

You can listen to Matthew briefly touch on his gym gains leading to better performance in the OR by clicking here.

Our Action Plan

We started with his “Vitality Discovery Session” where we looked at 3 key areas and then implemented solutions for Matthew.

Fitness – we came up with a customized workout routine where Matthew was confident he could keep up with the consistency. 3x per week of strength training done at the gym.

Nutrition – we focused on eating more “protein centric” meals; specifically with breakfast. Most days he didn’t eat lunch as he was operating so putting a big emphasis on eating more protein at breakfast, having a quick protein-centric snack at work, and then doubling up on his protein portions at dinner made all the difference.

Accountability – Matthew had daily check ins which didn’t take any longer than 60 seconds through my COVAL Coaching app. We also would communicate via text multiple times throughout the week through the app and then set up a calls when needed.

Matthew’s Results

In 6 months, Matthew:

Conclusion

The most important thing for Matthew was he was consistent throughout those 6 months.

This lead to:

If you’re a physician who, like Matthew, was feeling burned out despite your best effort to live a healthier and more fit life and want to learn the secrets to achieving a high-performance body and reducing burnout, then click here to sign up for my webinar “3 Secrets for Busy Physicians to Achieve A High-Performing Body & Reduce Burnout: Get Your Body to Look & Perform at an Elite Level without Creating More Chaos”