Lifestyle Medicine
Some Key Points about Lifestyle Medicine
Lifestyle medicine uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions as a primary modality to reduce, prevent, and reverse chronic conditions. These conditions include, but are not limited to obesity, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes.
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​Six Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine:
- Whole-Food, Plant-Predominant Eating Pattern: Emphasizes a diet rich in whole, plant-based foods.
- Physical Activity: Encourages regular exercise and movement.
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​Restorative Sleep: Prioritizes 8-10 hours of quality sleep nightly
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Stress Management: Addresses and uses stress reduction techniques
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Avoidance of Risky Substances: Promotes avoiding tobacco, alcohol, and other harmful substances.
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Positive Social Connections: Recognizes the importance of social support and relationships.
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Prevention and Reversal: Lifestyle medicine clinicians are trained to apply evidence-based lifestyle changes to treat and often reverse chronic conditions when used intensively. By addressing lifestyle factors, lifestyle medicine can prevent, treat, and even reverse diseases such as hypertension, heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and certain cancers.
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Clinical practice guidelines recommend lifestyle medicine as the first line of treatment before medications for lifestyle-related chronic diseases. Lifestyle medicine offers hope by focusing on lifestyle choices that give rise to these diseases. It aligns with the goal of better health outcomes, lower costs, improved patient satisfaction, and health equity.
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Lifestyle medicine aims to transform and improve health by emphasizing lifestyle interventions as a powerful tool for health promotion and disease prevention. Through coaching you are given the tools that empower you to make positive lifestyle changes that lead to better health outcomes to prevent, reduce, and modify chronic disease.
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