Lifestyle medicine is the use of evidence-based lifestyle therapeutic interventions – including nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress management, avoidance or risky substances, and positive social connection – as a primary modality, delivered by clinicians trained and certified in this specialty, to prevent, treat, and often reverse chronic disease. It is a branch of medicine dealing with research, prevention, treatment, and reversal of diseases caused by lifestyle factors such as nutrition, physical inactivity, and chronic stress.
The rise in chronic disease trends, and related healthcare spending in the United States and in many other countries, is unsustainable. Type 2 diabetes alone is a looming global pandemic with incalculable consequences.
This being said, there is good news.
The good news is that 80% or more of all healthcare spending in the U.S. is tied to the treatment of conditions rooted in poor lifestyle choices. Chronic disease and conditions – such as hypertension, heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, multiple types of cancer – are among the most common, costly, and preventable of all health conditions (Lifestylemedicine.org).
