Lighten Up

Lighten Up is a faith-based approach to lifestyle change developed in collaboration between the Medical Center of South Carolina and the local African-American Christian community that encourages participants to improve their health. The program includes health checks, health conferences, and an eight week program focused on nutrition, exercise, and spiritual growth. the health checks include measurements of weight, body fat, blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, high density lipoprotein (HDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL), very low density lipoprotein (VLDL), and glucose. The health conferences focus on the interpretation of health check test results, education on the health crisis in America, and identifying effective lifestyle choices for better health. The eight week program covers eight "spiritual fruits": love, knowledge, peace, faith, kindness, joy, self-control, and godliness. Each program includes an educational health video, covering topics including behavior change, food labels, diabetes, exercise, food composition, vitamins and minerals, food decisions, and faith.

The goal of the Lighten Up program is to encourage lifestyle change and improve health through faith-based lessons.

In a pre- and post-study, participants in the program had significant reductions in weight, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, triglycerides, and cholesterol (p's < 0.01) at the end of the program when compared to baseline measurements. Risk factor improvement was greater among participants who attended 75% or more of the educational sessions. At one year post-intervention, participants in the Lighten Up program maintained significant decreases in weight, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, and triglycerides.