“It is becoming clear that health care delivery must move away from the familiar practice of simply managing symptoms and toward addressing the root cause of chronic disease.”

ST. LOUIS (PRWEB)
May 24, 2022

The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) will observe the 2022 Global Lifestyle Medicine Week from May 29 to June 4 with a public awareness campaign, engagement opportunities and educational discounts focused on the rapidly growing medical specialty.

Participants can access a free toolkit to spread awareness about the six pillars of lifestyle medicine, obtain up to half price off continuing medical education (CME) and continuing education (CE) courses, receive free lifestyle medicine resources and join ACLM without paying a new member fee. A complete list of Lifestyle Medicine Week opportunities is available at lmweek.org.

“It is an exciting time for the medical specialty of lifestyle medicine, which has experienced exponential growth in interest among medical professionals, policymakers, health systems and consumers not just in the U.S. but across the world,” said ACLM President Catherine Collings, MD, MS, FACC, DipABLM. “More and more, it is becoming clear that health care delivery must move away from the familiar practice of simply managing symptoms and toward addressing the root cause of chronic disease through the integration of lifestyle medicine. We enter Global Lifestyle Medicine Week as inspired as ever to make lifestyle medicine the foundation of all health and health care.”

Lifestyle medicine uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions as a primary modality to treat chronic conditions including, but not limited to, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. Lifestyle medicine certified clinicians are trained to apply evidence-based, whole-person, prescriptive lifestyle change to treat and, when used intensively, often reverse such conditions. Applying the six pillars of lifestyle medicine—a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances and positive social connections—also provides effective prevention for these conditions.

Chronic disease is a rising global emergency. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 80% of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes and 40% of cancer could be prevented, primarily with improvements to diet and lifestyle. As the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) observed in its recent report Chronic Health Conditions: Federal Strategy Needed to Coordinate Diet-Related Efforts, “selected chronic health conditions linked to diet are prevalent, deadly, and costly. These diet-related conditions include cardiovascular diseases (heart disease and stroke), cancer, diabetes, and obesity.”

Medical professionals, policymakers, health systems and consumers are increasingly recognizing the potential of evidence-based, intensive lifestyle change to address the root causes of chronic disease, rather than the less effective approach of merely managing symptoms. Growth statistics include:

• ACLM, founded in 2004, has grown to nearly 8,000 members.
• Student-led Lifestyle Medicine Interest Groups exist at more than 70 campuses across the U.S.
• Today some 48 lifestyle medicine residency sites exist across 82 programs.
• Since certification began in 2017 by the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine, more than 2,004 physicians in the U.S. have become board certified in lifestyle medicine, along with 778 other health professionals.
• Globally, 3,225 physicians are now certified as well as 1,018 other health professionals.
• Some 58 health systems have joined ACLM’s Health Systems Council, a collaborative learning community of health systems that have actively begun integrating lifestyle medicine into its programs.
• ACLM’s Corporate Roundtable has more than 40 members.

A lifestyle medicine approach to population care has the potential to arrest the decades-long rise in the prevalence of chronic conditions and their burdensome costs. Patient and provider satisfaction often results from a lifestyle medicine approach, which strongly aligns the field with the Quintuple Aim of better health outcomes, lower cost, improved patient satisfaction, improved provider well-being, and advancement of health equity, in addition to its alignment with planetary health. Lifestyle medicine is the foundation for a redesigned, value-based and equitable healthcare delivery system, leading to whole person health.

ABOUT ACLM–The American College of Lifestyle Medicine is the nation’s medical professional society advancing lifestyle medicine as the foundation for a redesigned, value-based and equitable healthcare delivery system, leading to whole person health. ACLM educates, equips, empowers and supports its members through quality, evidence-based education, certification and research to identify and eradicate the root cause of chronic disease, with a clinical outcome goal of health restoration as opposed to disease management.

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