What is Lifestyle Medicine, and Why Do We Need It?

Modern medicine has given us incredible advancements in diagnosis and treatment. Pharmaceuticals, vaccines, imaging, and anesthetics, for example, have helped to control infectious disease, allow for lifesaving procedures, and respond quickly and effectively to acute conditions.

Despite these remarkable developments, however, serious health conditions remain widespread. We’re seeing a sharp increase in chronic and lifestyle-related diseases. Half of all Americans have cardiovascular disease. 1 in 3 Americans has prediabetes, 90% of whom do not realize it, and 34 million Americans have Type 2 diabetes. Nearly 1 in 7 people has high blood pressure worldwide, and obesity rates are rising so quickly that obesity is now considered a global epidemic. 

Why aren’t we healthier as a society? While technological advances have improved our lives in some ways, they have also had detrimental effects on our lifestyles. We’ve become increasingly sedentary, and fast food and processed foods have skewed our understanding of real food, leading to decreased intake of fresh fruits and vegetables. Even in the wake of low-fat, low-carb, and special dietary products that have promised solutions, obesity and chronic disease rates continue to climb. 

The statistics sound grim, but we can reframe them with a sense of optimism: Given that lifestyle is the principle cause of these serious illnesses, then we can also prevent, diminish, and even potentially reverse them with lifestyle. An estimated 70% of visits to a physician are considered to have a primarily lifestyle-related cause, so what a powerful role lifestyle can play in improving our individual and collective health! 

Lifestyle Medicine may be defined as “the use of a whole food, plant-predominant dietary lifestyle, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and positive social connections as a primary therapeutic modality for treatment and reversal of chronic disease.” Lifestyle Medicine is an exciting frontier of medicine because it addresses the root causes of chronic disease and has strong scientific support. 

That’s why I’m so excited to offer the Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP) as a way to adopt a healthier lifestyle and experience improved health outcomes as a result. It’s offered in a fun and friendly setting, and it provides you with the learning tools and support to live a life of optimal health and wellness. Learn more here or sign up for a free information session today!

Best of health to you, 

Stephanie

References: 

A short history of medicine and healthcare. (2015). In N. Brown (Ed.), Learn More (pp.7-17). Lifestyle Medicine Institute LLC.

American College of Lifestyle Medicine. (n.d.). Chronic disease in U.S. problem [Infographic]. https://www.lifestylemedicine.org  

American College of Lifestyle Medicine. (2019). https://www.lifestylemedicine.org/What-is-Lifestyle-Medicine