Have you heard of lifestyle medicine? This medical approach is gaining prominence for its ability to benefit patients’ long-term health. 

Here, we’ll provide an overview of lifestyle medicine and how it can help prevent and treat a wide range of health concerns. 

Defining Lifestyle Medicine

Lifestyle medicine is an evidence-based approach to medicine that incorporates lifestyle factors, such as diet, sleep, exercise, stress management, and social connections, to prevent and treat chronic illness. Oftentimes, a plant-based, whole-food diet is the focal point of lifestyle medicine.

Unlike conventional Western medicine, which typically centers around managing disease, lifestyle medicine aims to prevent disease. To do this, lifestyle medicine practitioners pinpoint and adjust habits and lifestyle factors that contribute to disease. 

The Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine

According to the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM), there are six key pillars of lifestyle medicine:

• Healthy eating
• Physical activity
• Stress management
• Relationships
• Sleep
• Tobacco cessation (this pillar can also include avoiding other substances that may have adverse health effects, such as alcohol)

These pillars are considered essential to enduring health and wellness. 

The Benefits of Lifestyle Medicine

Lifestyle medicine can provide many benefits to patients looking to improve their health. 

• For patients of all ages, with all types of medical concerns, lifestyle medicine can improve your overall wellness. 
• By honing in on lifestyle factors that are diminishing your health, this medical approach can improve your energy levels, mental health, physical wellbeing, and overall quality of life. 
• Lifestyle medicine is beneficial for almost any condition, especially chronic diseases like diabetes or cardiovascular disease, auto-immune conditions, hormonal imbalances, chronic fatigue and mental health conditions. 
• Lifestyle medicine focuses on lifestyle adjustments, rather than prescription medications. This can help patients avoid medication side effects and the risk of dependency. 
• Lifestyle medicine can help reverse and prevent chronic illness and help patients live longer happier lives. 

At Mind Body Spirit Care, we provide an individualized approach to medicine to pinpoint the root causes of health concerns. To learn more about our treatment options, schedule an appointment with us today!