Jane Tuttle, M.D.
“CLMT really opened up my overall medical school experience by introducing me to a group of like-minded people who strongly believed in the importance of lifestyle medicine like I always have.”
A lifelong passion for health and wellness led Jane Tuttle, M.D., to the West Virginia University School of Medicine, where she earned her medical degree while exploring a unique curriculum steeped in nutrition and lifestyle medicine principles.
Having started her medical training in her fifties, Dr. Tuttle said she credits maintaining healthy lifestyle practices for helping her excel during her education.
“Medical school is an incredible challenge on its own, and as someone who began their training later in life, I knew maintaining positive physical and mental health would be crucial to my success,” she said. “Keeping a healthy diet and exercising regularly helped me stay at my best, and ultimately achieve my dream of becoming a physician.”
This passion for wellness led Tuttle to enroll in the Culinary Lifestyle Medicine Track (CLMT), a four-year curriculum available to WVU medical students that provides comprehensive education in areas such as nutrition, lifestyle management and physical activity.
Tuttle said her experiences in the track not only further compounded her interest in these areas but also provided her with a community that gave her a crucial sense of belonging as a non-traditional medical student.
“CLMT really opened up my overall medical school experience by introducing me to a group of like-minded people who strongly believed in the importance of lifestyle medicine like I always have,” she said. “Being from a different generation than most of my classmates could make it easy to feel alienated at times, but the sense of community within CLMT helped connect with my peers and reassured me that I was right where I needed to be.”
Tuttle remained at WVU following her graduation, where she completed her residency in internal medicine and her fellowship in palliative medicine before officially joining the School of Medicine clinical faculty as an assistant professor for the Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics, Palliative Medicine and Hospice in 2025.
Tuttle currently practices at the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center in Morgantown, where she provides palliative care to patients with cancer. She said she implements what she learned through CLMT in her patient interactions daily, and that while some may think palliative and lifestyle medicine don’t go hand-in-hand, she has seen firsthand how diet and nutrition can benefit cancer patients, even those in hospice care.
“We often talk about lifestyle medicine being utilized to help patients live longer lives, but it can also just help patients live better lives,” she explained. “As palliative medicine doctors, our focus is on helping patients improve their overall quality of life. Implementing positive lifestyle changes like a better diet, more exercise, or even something as simple as spending more time outdoors can do just that for our patients as they navigate through the difficult journey of palliative care.”
Tuttle continues to provide support to CLMT as a faculty member by leading a rotation for fourth-year students in the track at the Cancer Center’s supportive care clinic and on inpatient palliative consults, where she demonstrates how lifestyle medicine principles can be applied to providing care for hospice patients.
“I really enjoy getting to lead these rotations and contribute to a program that did so much for me as a student,” she said. “Showing students how lifestyle medicine can apply to palliative medicine demonstrates to them how these principles can be utilized across the broad spectrum of medicine and benefit them later on as practicing physicians, regardless of what area they may choose to specialize in.”