Today we’d like to introduce you to Dustin Dwiggins
Dustin, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’m a doctor who’s seen too much. After ten years in the ER treating a bajillion patients, I’ve realized people are lost in the weeds–and it’s starting to get really weird.
Hi! I’m Dustin Dwiggins, the doctor at Texas Lifestyle Med. I’m a native Texan, born and raised in DFW, and I spent my college years bouncing around the state–first at Texas A&M (whoop!) for a degree in nutrition, then to Galveston where I started medical school, and finally to Austin where I finished my clinical years and met my husband.
From there, I headed to NYC to complete my emergency medicine training and became a board-certified emergency physician. But after a few years, my spouse and I longed for real Tex-Mex (NYC, babe, we need to chat). Austin was calling me home.
No matter where I am, I see the same patterns play out. Our healthcare system–and really our whole approach to well-being–is too complicated. We’re drowning in conflicting advice, quick fixes, and some pretty weird wellness trends.
Lifestyle Medicine offers a solution. So I decided to go back to school again for additional training and became a board-certified Lifestyle Medicine physician as well. I’ve focused my practice on what works best for patients: simplicity. We recenter the basics–nutrition, exercise, stress management, community–to help patients become independently healthy.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
First, I had to address my inner saboteur–that voice that said I wasn’t ready to try something new on my own. But I am listening to my gut and letting it all hang out. Opening Texas Lifestyle Med feels very vulnerable to me. No one in medical school teaches us business skills. I am constantly learning new things, but luckily I have some good people in my life supporting me.
Lifestyle Medicine is relatively new. Because it is basically an unheard-of specialty right now, I’ll sometimes hear:
(1) “Isn’t this all common sense? We should all exercise and eat well”; and (2) “People are lazy and just want to take a pill.”
My response to those negative Nancies is if it’s just common sense, how come we aren’t all doing it already? I think one reason is that we’re bogged down in misinformation. I want to help pull patient’s heads out of the onslaught of baloney. I don’t think people are lazy. I think for the most part folks work incredibly hard and feel overwhelmed. I want to empower patients and simplify the process.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Texas Lifestyle Med?
I still work and see patients at the ER, where I often just get a few minutes at a time. But in almost every shift I see at least one person who comes in with a preventable complaint–anxiety about medical illness they read about, or a medication side effect (polypharmacy is a real and deadly issue). My internal voice is always yelling, “Oh man, you have really lost your way!”
My practice at Texas Lifestyle Med is 100% virtual. I get to sit and talk to patients for 60-90 minutes at a time. We dissect and pull apart the problem from all angles. We’ll laugh, and we might cry a little too. It’s all part of the process. Because sometimes, the most powerful medicine isn’t just about treating a condition–it’s about restoring trust, clarity, and a sense of control over your own health.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Curiosity. We put too much damn pressure on ourselves (me too honey!). When I’m curious about something it makes me excited to learn and try something new. As adults, we become scared to try new things. We get stuck in patterns that are not always best for us. We settle. It can all get a little blah.
I get curious about a patient’s habits and then excited to see how we can work together to find a personalized solution. I usually learn something about myself along the way too.
I want to generate this same curiosity in my patients. To help them figure out and try new patterns in their life to make them healthier and a better someone–because we’re all someone to somebody, be it a friend, partner, parent, or coworker.
Pricing:
- 90-Minute Appointment, $350
- 60-Minute Appointment, $275
- *on average, it’s about $12/minute at the clinic, and $4.50/minute with me
- *if you’re currently facing financial hardships, contact us to ask about alternative arrangements.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://texaslifestylemed.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/texaslifestylemed/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/texaslifestylemed
