Welcome

What is lifestyle medicine?

Lifestyle medicine is a medical specialty that uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions as a primary modality to treat chronic conditions including, but not limited to, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. Lifestyle medicine certified clinicians are trained to apply evidence-based, whole-person, prescriptive lifestyle change to treat and, when used intensively, often reverse such conditions. Applying the six pillars of lifestyle medicine—a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances and positive social connections—also provides effective prevention for these conditions.

6 Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine:

Nutrition- Evidence supports the use of a whole food, plant-predominant diet to prevent, treat and reverse chronic illness.

Physical Activity - Regular, consistent physical activity is an important part of overall health and resiliency.

Stress Management - Managing negative stress can lessen anxiety, depression and immune dysfunction and leads to improved well-being.

Restorative Sleep - Improving sleep quality can improve attention span, mood, insulin resistance and can reduce hunger, sluggishness and more.

Social Connection - Positive social connections have beneficial effects on physical, mental and emotional health.

Avoidance of Risky Substances - Use of tobacco and excessive alcohol consumption have been shown to increase risk of chronic diseases and death.

Addressing chronic disease

Lifestyle medicine can address up to 80% of chronic diseases. A lifestyle medicine approach to population care has the potential to arrest the decades-long rise in the prevalence of chronic conditions and their burdensome costs. Patient and provider satisfaction often results from a lifestyle medicine approach, which strongly aligns the field with the Quintuple Aim of better health outcomes, lower cost, improved patient satisfaction, improved provider well-being, and advancement of health equity, in addition to its alignment with planetary health. Lifestyle medicine is the foundation for a redesigned, value-based and equitable healthcare delivery system, leading to whole person health.