What is Lifestyle Medicine and why do we need it?

Lifestyle Medicine (LM) is the evidence based practice of assisting individuals and families to adopt and sustain behaviors that can improve health and quality of life. These include healthy diet, participating in regular physical activity, having good quality sleep, managing stress, avoiding risky substance abuse and building strong social connections. LM has demonstrated its effectiveness at preventing, managing and sometimes reversing the diseases that globally carry the biggest morbidity and mortality burden, such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease and obesity. More so, it is estimated that 80% of non-communicable chronic diseases could be avoided by living a healthier lifestyle. Certain structural barriers have made LM's incorporation into the medical curriculum and clinical practice slower than expected, however, more and more academic institutions and healthcare providers are adopting LM's principles. The appearance of medical associations related to this discipline in almost every continent is accelerating the pace towards a medicine that is more centered on the root-causes of disease, rather than focusing on symptoms.