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.
​
There are six pillars of lifestyle medicine, which, when combined, offer holistic sustained wellbeing.
The 6 Lifestyle Pillars
1
Plant-Centric Eating
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!
​​
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.
​
Recognize your stress responses and practice coping mechanisms / reduction techniques that will lead to improved mental / emotional wellbeing.
4
Avoidance of Risky Substances
Tobacco, illegal drugs, alcohol, and 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.
​
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.
​
Establish consistent, optimal sleeping habits that enable your body to complete essential biological processes that lead to optimal wellbeing.
6
Social Connection
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 also strengthen your other relationships so you can thrive.
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).
​
The ultimate goal is to establish balance across all six pillars.
The Foundational Pillar
FOOD 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.
Verb vs Noun
Learn to see the word HEALTH as a verb, not a noun.
​When we see HEALTH AS A VERB it comes in the form of a daily habit/action and not a destination, which enables us to practice it, get better at it and ultimately achieve it and live it in a sustainable way. This is LIFESTYLE MEDICINE in action!
vs
HEALTH AS A NOUN drives us to to aim for a goal (ie lose weight) and then 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.
Symptomatic Care vs Root Cause Care
Our current health care model for chronic disease focuses on detecting a disease that has become established, and then using pills, potions and procedures to control it.
Meds to control T2 diabetes, or installing a stent to manage cardio-vascular disease being two examples.
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.
More often than not, the underlying disease/issue is still there and health continues to decline with age.
​
Lifestyle Medicine focuses on ROOT CAUSE / PROACTIVE / PREVENTIVE CARE - teaching, enabling and supporting lifestyle behaviors that prevent problems from even starting, and monitoring to catch and fix the root cause of problems early, before they erupt into bigger medical issues that require medications/procedures..... thus enabling sustained vibrant, med-free health.
More often than not, chronic disease is avoided and life span / health span remain equal.
​
Your Doctor
There's a good chance your doctor may not be aware of Lifestyle Medicine, or doesn't apply it when working with you.
Make sure you understand why this is happening, and why partnering with a physician who has taken the extra 2 years of training to become board certified in LIFESTYLE MEDICINE 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 & lifestyle medicine to medical schools across the country.
​
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 (from February 12, 2024).
A New Health / Financial Strategy!
For US citizens, leveraging Lifestyle principles is also fast becoming a key strategy for reducing the likelihood of having to deal with the terrible health insurance system and potentially going bankrupt.
Join us for a discussion!
Come and join us for an interactive discussion about LIFESTYLE MEDICINE!
Bring your questions!
Sessions are very organic: we may explore a perspective, watch a short video and then discuss, do a Q&A session, or just have an open discussion on whatever it is you want to talk about. Goal is to help you to see your food/health world differently - so you can become empowered to regain autonomy over your wellbeing.
Sessions are FREE, and are offered weekly via Zoom: Mondays, 6pm EST - 1hr.
give a body what it needs and it will take care of itself