In the context of evidence-based preventive medicine, the term “lifestyle medicine” refers to a method that treats patients by assisting them in recovering through the implementation of healthy lifestyle changes. Patients are encouraged to enhance their daily routine in all aspects, including their eating habits, the amount of sleep they get, the amount of physical activity they get, the meal plans they follow, how they deal with stress, and other lifestyle habits that can make or break one’s overall health.
The American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM) defines lifestyle medicine as a guidance method that assists patients to make long-lasting impacts on both their health and their overall well-being. This definition can be found in the American College of Preventive Medicine’s definition of lifestyle medicine. After all, one of the primary goals of lifestyle medicine is to educate people about how the decisions they make regarding their way of life can have repercussions throughout their entire lives, either for the better or for the worse.
In addition, lifestyle medicine offers assistance to individuals and families in the process of adopting a healthy way of life. Patients will be able, with the assistance of trained medical professionals, to adopt and maintain healthy behaviors which will contribute to a reduction in the risks of developing lifestyle-related disorders.
In these lifestyle medicine approaches, every aspect of a person’s life is taken into consideration, beginning with the foods they eat and proceeding up to the length and number of times per week that they participate in physical activity. In addition to this, it is a very adaptable form of treatment, which means that you may make the decision for yourself and then discuss it with the lifestyle medicine specialist that you see so that it can be tailored to better suit your preferences.
At the end of the day, the objective is to assist the patient in kicking their bad habits and moving on to a life that is both healthier and more fulfilling. This is due to the assumption that providing a patient with basic healthcare involves more than just writing prescriptions and requesting laboratory tests. Most of the time, all that needs to be done is merely educating the individual on how to lead a healthier lifestyle so that they can recover more quickly and avoid becoming ill shortly.
What Are the Six Principles That Support the Concept of Lifestyle Medicine?
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACFD) identifies the six aspects of one’s health that are described below as the foundation on which the practice of lifestyle medicine is built.
Nutrition
The proper intake of nutrients is essential to maintaining a healthy diet. In addition to this, it is an essential component of overall health and development. Therefore, if you provide your body with the right nutrition that it requires, all of the other aspects of your health will fall into place. Because of this, you will have a healthy lifestyle, which will make it possible for you to have a life that is full of joy and freedom from anxiety.
This cornerstone of lifestyle medicine will assist you in deciding what foods to eat and how much food to consume daily. Your lifestyle medicine practitioner can also assist you in developing healthy eating routines and planning your meal patterns to meet your needs. When you do this, your immune system will grow significantly stronger, which will protect you from developing chronic diseases as well as other ailments that are caused by inadequate nutrition.
You should increase the number of fruits, vegetables, and other things that come from plants that you eat so that you can provide your body with a healthy boost. You might include nutritious sources of protein like lean meat and eggs, for example. For a more nutritious start to the day, you may want to switch from drinking sweetened coffee in the morning to drinking black coffee or green tea instead.
Exercise
Exercise, which can also refer to your normal movements throughout the day, plays an important part in your overall health. It helps you maintain a healthy weight, which minimizes the chance of developing hazardous diseases, increases blood circulation, strengthens bones and muscles, and improves overall health. In addition to this, it is well-documented that physical activity speeds up the processes that occur in the brain, improves mental clarity, and causes the production of hormones that are also known as “happy” hormones, putting you in a much happier and more at ease state of mind.
Because of this, practitioners of lifestyle medicine place a significant amount of significance on the development of a healthy exercise routine as a means of improving an individual’s overall health status. They develop an exercise schedule for the patient after considering their lifestyle and their desired level of health.
Stress Management
The presence of stress in one’s life is unavoidable. It could be due to your job, your relationships, the things you do daily, or anything else that results in a stressful process. Since it is impossible to completely avoid stress under any circumstances, it is essential to acquire the skills necessary to control and cope with it to prevent it from leading to more serious health issues.
You will learn methods that are both beneficial to your health and very effective for handling stress through the practice of lifestyle medicine. It could involve taking some slow, deep breaths, organizing a timetable for your free time, or simply taking a break to spend time with the people you care about.
Abuse of Substances
Habits that are harmful to one’s health, such as consuming alcohol and smoking cigarettes or tobacco, might put one at risk for developing major health problems. They have been linked to a variety of diseases, including lung cancer, difficulties with the liver, tuberculosis, and heart disease.
Because of this, lifestyle medicine will get engaged with a patient’s history of substance usage and will attempt to intervene with it. Practitioners of lifestyle medicine can guide you through the process of gradually overcoming your dependence on substances. In addition to that, they will provide you with a few healthy alternatives, particularly while you are in the process of breaking such an addiction.
Sleep
The amount of sleep that you get daily is another significant component that will play a role in determining your general state of health. Alterations in diet, physical activity, and other aspects of a person’s lifestyle can be influenced by sleep. As a result, when formulating a treatment plan, lifestyle medicine takes into consideration the patient’s average number of hours spent sleeping.
As a consequence of this, getting a suitable amount of sleep is an essential component in enhancing the immune system of your body. Additionally, it assists in alleviating the negative feelings that are brought on by a lack of sleep.
Relationships
Your mental and social wellness needs to surround yourself with positive people and cultivate healthy relationships. This is because receiving appropriate social support is a significant component in the entire development of an individual. This is the reason why those who practice lifestyle medicine encourage you to spend time with the people you care about and spend time with your friends. They will also encourage you to participate in social activities such as birthday celebrations, parties, going out for the night, and other such things.
Mode of living that is healthy
To summarize, lifestyle medicine is a forward-thinking form of treatment that encourages patients to improve their health by altering the behaviors that are typical in their everyday lives. As a result, lifestyle medicine entails making beneficial adjustments to the patient’s eating habits, exercise routines, and sleeping patterns. This allows the patient to heal organically while simultaneously bringing about positive adjustments in how they go about their daily lives.
At the end of the day, deciding to live a healthy lifestyle is a choice that not everyone possesses the intestinal fortitude to make. But as soon as you do, you will experience extraordinary changes in your body that will make it possible for you to enjoy a life of happiness and tranquility.