What is Lifestyle Medicine?
Lifestyle medicine is a medical specialty that uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions as a primary modality to treat chronic health conditions. Lifestyle medicine certified clinicians and other health care professionals are trained to apply evidence-based, whole person, prescriptive lifestyle mindset and habit changes to treat chronic diseases. When these changes are applied consistently and intensively, conditions are often completely reversed.
Medications and other interventions are considered transitional, with the ultimate goal being to help you learn to establish sustainable lifestyle habits that heal your body so that meds can be phased down/out, setting you up for sustained wellbeing.
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There are six pillars of lifestyle medicine, which, when combined, offer holistic sustained wellbeing.
The 6 Lifestyle Pillars
1
Optimal
Nutrition
What we eat either harms or heals us. When it's healing us / keeping us healthy, we call this CULINARY MEDICINE!
Extensive scientific evidence supports the use of a whole-food, predominantly plant-centric diet as a fundamental strategy for preventing chronic disease, and for treatment and possible cure from chronic conditions. Plant-centric eating is nutrient-dense, rich in fiber and antioxidants, and predominantly consists of fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, seeds and pulses / legumes.
Learn how delicious this way of eating is, and acquire the skills and knowledge to procure, prepare and nourish your way to optimal health!
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2
Physical Activity
Consistent physical activity combats the negative effects of sedentary behavior. Developing a love for movement through all stages of life is essential for overall health and resilience. There are four activity pivots: CARDIOVASCULAR EXERCISE (for a strong heart and healthy blood vessels), WEIGHT/RESISTANCE training (to keep your muscles strong), MOBILITY training (to optimize your flexibility and range of motion) and BALANCE (to prevent you from falling).
Find movement modalities you will enjoy doing on a regular basis that cover the four different pivots.
3
Stress Management
Stress can be either positive or negative. Positive stress motivates us to engage and deal with the situation at hand, but negative stress, especially when it's chronic, can lead to anxiety, depression, obesity, immune disfunction and more.
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Recognize your stress responses and practice coping mechanisms / reduction techniques that will lead to improved mental / emotional wellbeing.
4
Avoidance of Risky Substances
Tobacco, drugs, alcohol, and the chemicals used on our bodies / around our homes can all contribute to chronic diseases, and misuse / excessive use can even lead to death.
Master avoidance strategies and safe usage guidance, or leverage various treatment options to break addictive habits so you live a toxic-free life.
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5
Restorative Sleep
Sleep is not an optional lifestyle luxury, or a sign of laziness. Sleep is a non-negotiable biological necessity. Poor sleep hygiene causes and exacerbates disease.
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Establish consistent, optimal sleeping habits that enable your body to complete essential biological processes that lead to optimal wellbeing.
6
Connectedness
Positive social connections and relationships affect physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.
Get connected and integrated into new social networks that foster/enable a healthy LIFESTYLE, and learn to navigate the social pressures that often derail wellbeing efforts.
Everything's Connected
When we change one pillar, we influence another. Just small changes in one area can help another area move forward.... and conversely, a setback in one area will often negatively influence another.
EXAMPLES
When we're adequately EXERCISED it contributes to better SLEEP.
When we have good SOCIAL CONNECTION with co-workers it lowers our STRESS levels at work.
When we manage our STRESS effectively we are less likely to go to FOOD for comfort.
When we stay up late to PARTY WITH FRIENDS we can't get enough SLEEP before work the next day.
We often SMOKE/DRINK more when we are STRESSED, making it harder to quit.
When we EAT a poor diet it promotes disease, which negatively impacts all the other pillars (SLEEP, STRESS, SOCIAL CONNECTION, RISKY SUBSTANCES and PHYSICAL ACTIVITY).
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The ultimate goal is to establish balance across all six pillars.
The Foundational Pillar
OPTIMAL NUTRITION is the foundational pillar. Get that one right and it will naturally drive progress in the other pillars.
EXAMPLES
When you stop eating at least 3 hours before bed you'll SLEEP better.
Eating more plants will heal your body - you'll start to feel better and be more motivated to EXERCISE.
When you're healthier as a result of improved food habits, you'll respect and care for your body more, lowering the possibility you'll venture into RISKY SUBSTANCES.
When you dump diets in favor of sustainable food habits you'll lower your STRESS.
Your new food tribe will bring with it new SOCIAL CONNECTIONS that foster healthier behaviors/activities, leading to a sustainable lifestyle of wellbeing.
Symptomatic Care vs Root Cause Care
Our current health care model for chronic disease is REACTIVE. Investigations involve wide data ranges of tolerance – with a “now we have a big problem to fix” approach, only detecting a disease when it has become truly established, and then using pills, potions and procedures to control/alleviate the symptoms. Medications, more often than not, end up being permanent.
Meds to control T2 diabetes, or installing a stent to manage cardio-vascular disease are two examples.
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This is SYMPTOMATIC CARE - where we turn the warning light off, but don't get under the hood to fix the root cause of the problem.
The underlying disease/issue remains and health continues to decline with age.
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Lifestyle Medicine focuses on ROOT CAUSE / PROACTIVE / PREVENTIVE CARE. Investigations involve identifying early imbalances using narrower data ranges of tolerance – with a “catch early and prevent it getting worse” approach. Medications are considered transitional while root cause solutions are explored and implemented, with the goal being to achieve sustained vibrant, med-free health.
More often than not, chronic disease is avoided and life span / health span remain equal.​
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The Lifestyle Medicine Specialty
Lifestyle Medicine is a specialty..... just like orthopedics, oncology, pediatrics, internal medicine and more. To become certified, physicians must hold a primary board certification from an ABMS- or AOA-approved board for at least two years to then become eligible for the Lifestyle Medicine training. Once the training is complete, they must then pass an exam written to National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) standards, demonstrating leadership and mastery in the science of treating, reversing, and preventing chronic diseases. Upon passing the exam they earn the title - Diplomate of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine (DipABLM).
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For more information, visit the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.
Your Doctor
There's a good chance your doctor may not be aware of the Lifestyle Medicine specialty, or doesn't apply Lifestyle Medicine principles into his thinking/diagnosis/solution planning when working with you.
Make sure you understand why this is happening, and why partnering with a physician who has become a Diplomate of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine (DipABLM) is a good strategy to have.
Review this SHORT PRESENTATION (5 minutes) to learn more.
Moving Medicine Forward
Moving Medicine Forward (MMF) is a non profit organization that recognizes the power of food and lifestyle to either harm or heal, and is seeking to change the medical school education system, which (as you learned from the short presentation noted above) currently omits applied nutrition / lifestyle science from its curriculum.
Moving Medicine Forward's MEDICAL SCHOOL NUTRITION EDUCATION INITATIVE is bringing the revolutionary ideas of disease reversal through plant-based nutrition and lifestyle medicine to medical schools across the country.
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Click HERE to learn more.
The Media is Talking!
Conversations about Lifestyle Medicine are becoming ever more mainstream.
Check out this National Public Radio segment on the topic.
A New Health Insurance Strategy!
Leveraging and living the LIFESTYLE PILLARS is fast becoming a key strategy for reducing the likelihood of falling into the crosshairs of our broken health insurance system - potentially going into serious debt or becoming bankrupt.
Learn to see HEALTH as a verb, not a noun
When we see HEALTH AS A NOUN it drives us to to aim for a goal (ie lose weight). When we get there, we think we're done, and back off from all the good it took to get us there, creating a good/bad cycle of behavior that ultimately doesn't serve us well, leaving sustained wellbeing out of reach.
When we see HEALTH AS A VERB it comes in the form of a daily habit/action which we practice, get better at, and ultimately master, living in an ongoing, sustainable way. This is LIFESTYLE MEDICINE!​ ​