“Even though I had no symptoms of heart disease, Dr. Gilson recommended a screen test it was positive. I had an artery that was 90% blocked. I underwent angioplasty and can’t thank Dr. Gilson enough for helping me avoid a potentially devastating heart attack”
About Dr. Gilson
A native Rhode Islander, Dr.Gilson started his journey as a physician along the banks of the Woonasquatucket River, in Lymansville, North Providence. Even as a youngster he had decided that being a doctor was his goal in life. After attending LaSalle Academy and Holy Cross College, he received his medical degree from Georgetown Medical School in Washington D.C. During the next four years he completed residencies in Internal Medicine and Cardiology in Detroit and Boston before returning to establish practice in Rhode Island..
Dr Gilson married Jane Kirby in 1954, and moved to his present home in Smithfield where they raised 10 children. Despite the demands of family, daily hospital visits, night call and maintaining a busy practice, he became Director of the Department of Medicine and Coronary Care Unit at St Josephs Hospital. In this role he introduced exercise stress testing, ambulatory heart monitoring, and established the first Cardiac Rehabilitation Program in Rhode Island.
It was this program - the rehabilitation of patients after a heart attack - that ignited his intense and current interest in the role of nutrition and exercise in disease prevention. “Dr Gilson’s Life Extension and Weight Loss Revolution” is the culmination of that interest.
“I’ve never considered obesity to be a matter of choice or the result of a lack of will power. Nor have I believed that behavioral interventions alone, along with simple admonitions to ‘eat less and exercise more’, could be effective long term. Successful and sustainable weight loss will only be achieved when we recognize that those who have weight problems that won’t go away are metabolically different.”
This belief is reflected in his new program. While it incorporates behavioral methods to achieve lifestyle change, it also carefully assesses the metabolic state of each individual, and then designs the appropriate interventions to correct it.
“As a physician, nothing gives me more satisfaction than knowing I’ve been responsible for a beneficial change in the life of another person. That’s what I’d like this program to do; make that one simple change that will allow each individual to successfully and permanently lose weight in order to live a longer, healthier and happier life.”