“Lifestyle Medicine is the use of evidence-based lifestyle therapeutic approaches, such as plant-predominant dietary lifestyle, regular physical activity, adequate sleep, stress management, avoiding use of risky substances and pursuing other non-drug modalities to treat, reverse and prevent chronic disease.” – American College of Lifestyle Medicine
Evidence-based denotes an approach that emphasizes and recommends the practical application of the findings of the best available current research.
In the 1930’s the first commercially available antibacterial, Prontosil, a sulfonamide, was released. This revolutionized medicine by significantly reducing the morbidity and mortality associated with infectious disease which was the leading cause of death at that time, as well as through most of human existence. Over the past 80 years the “modernized” world has seen a significant shift toward chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes, as the leading causes of death. This shift is closely correlated to the changes in the Western lifestyle with the rise in processed foods and adoption of an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. Our current practice of developing medication or performing surgery for nearly every illness isn’t working and is eating up most of our health care dollars. It is time for a new revolution. It is time for us to consider lifestyle as the first-line treatment for the prevention and treatment of chronic disease.
