What Really Is Lifestyle Medicine, A brief Overview

It is good news that people automatically tend to have a strong innate faith in the genre of lifestyle medicine as a new treatment modality or most popularly as a preventive measure; but they seem to be confused too due to the exposure to the large mixture of information from all around with which they are being bombarded with. Everyone is preaching lifestyle medicine, from all branches of medicine making the comprehension of attributes of lifestyle medicine more than a bit clouded. The most common doubts include

• Is it really backed by evidence?

• Is it completely reliable?

• Are there side effects?

• Is it an anti - modern medicine practice?

• Is it naturopathy, is it Ayurveda or is it some ancient buddhist technique?

  Like these, there are a lot of confusion revolving around this topic.

Right now, we are going to get a real clarity on this;

"Lifestyle medicine is a medical specialty that 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 -

1. A whole food plant based eating pattern

2. Adequate physical activity

3. Restorative sleep

4. Stress management

5. Avoidance of risky substances

6. Positive social connections

- exercising these six pillars might provide effective prevention for the chronic conditions." [ACLM]

Lifestyle physicians get certified after studying the curriculum provided by American board of lifestyle medicine/International board of lifestyle medicine, after which they have to take an exam and clear it.

So, let’s be sure of this fact now that Lifestyle medicine is evidence based and not adapted from some ancient cultures but may have inspired by them and put it in to proper research, it is a part or a specialty of modern medicine and most importantly, lifestyle medicine whole heartedly welcomes clinicians from all branches of medicine and allied medical fields, who are interested in practicing evidence based lifestyle medicine and it also encourages clinicians to put their method of practice under scrutiny by the proper methods of research. Yes, all are welcome.

Lifestyle medicine is a very organic and natural treatment option from modern medicine for those with a chronic disease as well as a preventive option for everyone. More than a medical specialty, it is a proven healthy way of living which augments our body physiology, body mechanics, emotional wellbeing and longevity. By living this way, we are only going back to a point from where our paths were misguided. Without a doubt, I might argue that lifestyle medicine treatments are very much reliable and it is of least side effects; like I said earlier, we are only living our lives how it supposed to be with lifestyle medicine.

The volume of data coming out from research studies pertaining to lifestyle medicine is too tempting as they are telling the stories of cardiovascular disease reversals, diabetes reversals, hypertension medication stoppage, normalization of blood cholesterols, getting rid of excess weight, remission of auto immune diseases and cancers etc etc with appropriate lifestyle medicine treatment modalities. In fact, lifestyle medicine is a new valid promise.

A whole food plant based diet is the back bone of lifestyle medicine even though in practice, most of the lifestyle medicine physicians including me advocate for a whole food plant predominant diet (meat is not completely avoided but quantity is limited) considering the cultural backgrounds and joy of eating of our patients. We here savor the natural flavor of whole foods and trust me it is very addictive and mind filling. I now wonder about the versatility of tastes that nature keeps for us. The fruity fluid that comes from the pulp of a ripe orange, I used to enjoy every last bit of it; Oh my god, talking about whole plant foods, I am getting carried away, lets come back.

Why are most of the people out there missing out on this? I would say the influence of processed foods are the reason. So, here in lifestyle medicine, we completely avoid processed foods, sugar sweetened beverages, food cooked in high dry heat and we prefer as I said the whole plant based foods.

Ok, what is this 'whole' then? Whole food means unrefined, un processed foods like whole grain (unrefined), fruits, vegetables, legumes, leafy greens, nuts, seeds etc. And why whole food? There is ample evidence that refined and processed foods have a crucial role in the development of chronic diseases as well as overall poor health and wellbeing. Also, consuming whole food is related to reduction in the occurrence or progression of chronic ailments like diabetes, heart disease, stroke, mental illness, hypertension, obesity and so on. We can talk more in details regarding lifestyle medicine diet patterns, Healthy food recipes, tips and tricks through other dedicated blogs and newsletters. Consider subscribing to my exclusive free weekly newsletter. It will be worth a read every week.

1. Whole Food Plant Based Diet

Adequate physical activity is an unavoidable pillar of lifestyle medicine. Physical activity can be of four types - aerobic, strength training, flexibility, balance. We mainly focus on the aerobic and strength training activities. How much physical activity is adequate? Even though there are guidelines for adults to do at least 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity aerobic activity and at least 75 minutes per week of strength training, any activity of any duration as small as, example: one minute, will be helpful. Sedentary behavior increased sitting itself is a big sponsor for diseases and disabilities. Even a measly 2 minutes of walk after 20 minutes of sitting can reduce the risk of death by several folds. Aerobic activity should be graded up as much as possible slowly over time, same applies to strength training also. There should be a rest day for a group of muscle before doing the very next workout for the same group. Brisk walking is a good moderate intensity aerobic exercise where you can talk but not sing while doing it. Take care to adequately hydrate during exercise and have a protein rich meal after completion. There are a lot more to talk about exercise, we will discuss more of them in the blogs and weekly newsletters. Stay active.

2. Physical Activity

All of us equate a good night's sleep to health, restoration and wellbeing. Lifestyle medicine also values the importance of sleep so much that sleep turned out to be an inevitable pillar of lifestyle medicine. The quantity of sleep required in each age group is different but as a general consensus, a 7 to 9 hours of nightly sleep is very important for our bodies. We will discuss more about the sleep requirements of each age group in other sessions. Our sleep is aided by the hormone melatonin and it is of utmost importance for healing of our body and mind.

I will give you a glimpse to the tools that might help to get a good night's sleep.

• Get away from bright light (blue/white) in the evening or at least 2 to 3 hours before bed. Our smartphones, television and laptops are all blue light emitters.

• Have a night time routine such that it signals our body to wind down (brushing, bathing, journaling etc)

• Have a dinner with less carbohydrate or light dinner and ideally dinner should be at least 2 hours before bed.

• Get good sunlight in the morning - may be go for a walk

Hope these tips help you. We will talk in detail regarding sleep in the upcoming blogs.

3. Restorative Sleep

One of the most unattended aspects of our lives would be stress. We all appreciate that we are stressed at some point but we don't usually do anything about it. Stress slowly builds up in our system as adverse psychological and physiological changes and move us forward to ailments. It is proven that stress can induce and progress cardio vascular diseases, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, several cancers, obesity etc, And so we should address our stresses and tensions in a timely manner.

Positive relationships are great stress busters. Physical activity, hobbies, time in nature, meditation, good food, gratitude practice will also do the job. there is numerous evidence that including fruits and vegetables in diet, physical activity, positive social connections can boost our moods and relieve stress. It is important to address this point as all the pillars of lifestyle medicine, when practices adequately will help improve our mood and help us get rid of stress in a positive way. And so let be mindful of the six pillars of lifestyle medicine and practice them with mindfulness. And yeah, mindfulness itself reduces stress and improves quality of life. We here at lifestyle medicine helps you to reduce your stress and improve your quality of life, It's one among our top most priority.

I hope that you get an overall idea about stress and its influence on health. We will talk more about stress reduction in dedicated blogs and newsletters.

4. Stress Management

Are you familiar with the longest research study of the world?; It is called the Harvard adult health study and it is still going on after 80 years. According to this study, the single most important factor that contributed most to the health, wellness and longevity of people is positive social connections, amazing right! Be it your wife, your friend or someone who care about you and you care about them, it is an ultimate factor for quality life. There are researches that says social loneliness is equivalent to physical pain and now we know why these people who are close to us exist, to ease our pain, to uplift us and to share our time with. There are other studies saying that happiness is contagious to up to a third degree friend, ie the effect your happiness will be somehow transferred to the friend of your friend's friend! mind blowing!. So, lets put our loved ones first and live with them a meaningful life. I know that the number of words in this section is a few but the weight of them are massive. Lifestyle medicine considered positive social connections as one of it's pillar, you now know the reason why. Let's keep our people together, they are there for a reason..

5. Positive Social Connections

I wonder why people still smoke, the sheer volume of researches supporting it's adverse health effects is truly alarming. It consumes us from head to toe. For listing the harmful effects of cigarettes, this page wouldn't be enough. Cardio vascular system, lungs, esophagus, stomach, intestines, brain, skin, nails; it destroys wherever it goes. Passive smoke is similarly dangerous as active smoking. It feels like smokers doesn't care about the warnings over a cigarette cover. for most of the cancers i studied during my medical school, smoking would be a risk factor. Considering the data, smoking turns out to be in within the top five factors of death globally. This is why the way of lifestyle medicine helps you get rid of risky substances. Let's imagine a world where there is no smoking, what do you see? the picture would have been more healthy and beautiful. Let's hope at least the coming generations are aware.

Quitting smoking might need multiple attempts. The thought of quitting smoking itself is appreciable. There are multiple modalities available in the health sector to aid quitting including nicotine patches, gums, medications, inhalers etc which are very effective. If you are a smoker or you know someone who smokes, please find a nearest facility for a trial of quitting; it will be worth it.

Alcohol too is a harmful substance. The recommended allowance is only 1 drink per day for women and two drinks per day for men. This is the upper limit. The lower limit is always and always zero drinking. There is no drinking called healthy drinking in this world. Binge drinking is the worst nightmare that you can give it to your own body. Alcohol can rot your body and push you towards liver cirrhosis and cancer. Why hurting ourselves with some substances that doesn't do good at all to us. So, it is prevention always better than cure. There are multiple medications to treat alcohol dependance also. Simply contacting a GP or the nearest healthcare provider might help in getting these poisons out of lives of those who use it permanently.

Okey, okey... Now we are at the end of this article. I am sure that you might have learned more about lifestyle medicine, it's six pillars and it's significance in this current world. If you still have unsolved queries regarding lifestyle medicine, fell free to message me. And if you wish to have a lifestyle medicine consultation with me, This website will be open for lifestyle medicine consultation from 2024 January 3rd onwards. First consult will be free of cost. The services I provide include, comprehensive lifestyle medicine consultation, optimization of your diet, physical activity monitoring, diabetes reversal program, hypertension remission program, normalization of cholesterol naturally, weight loss program, medication reduction services and much more related to lifestyle medicine. Feel free to contact. Also please subscribe to the exclusive free weekly newsletter where I will be discussing in detail about important aspects of lifestyle medicine. See you soon.

6. Avoiding Risky Substances