LIFESTYLE MEDICINE
Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine defines Lifestyle Medicine as being "a branch of evidence-based medicine in which comprehensive lifestyle changes (including nutrition, physical activity, stress management, social support and environmental exposures) are used to prevent, treat and reverse the progression of chronic disease by addressing their underlying cause. It empowers individuals with the knowledge and skills to make effective behaviour changes that address the underlying cause of disease”.
Lifestyle Medicine’s Unique VALUE
- Allows the body to protect and heal itself by promoting healthy lifestyle choices
- Educates, guides and supports positive behaviour changes
- Treats the underlying, lifestyle-related causes of disease
- Places a focus on evidence-based optimal nutrition, stress management, sleep and physical activity
- Encourages active patient/client participation
- Uses medications as a supplement to therapeutic lifestyle changes
What does Lifestyle medicine encompass
Practitioners provide education, guidelines, recommendations, coaching and prescriptions that addresses these seven contributing factors to health:
- Diet and nutrition
- Exercise and activity
- Stress management
- Sleep quantity and quality
- Smoking and alcohol use
- Social relationships and sense of purpose
- Environmental exposure
History behind Lifestyle Medicine
Chronic disease is sabotaging our health, destroying our quality of life, shortening our lifespan, and threatening the health of future generations. The scary statistic is that these conditions now make up the top 5 causes of death in Australia for those in the over 45 age categories.
Our current conventional medical system is disease-based and has a structural and financial bias toward symptom suppression, largely through the extensive use of pharmaceuticals, rather than the discovery and elimination of root cause.
Managing the CAUSE of chronic disease is different, and lies in addressing “lifestyle choices” and assisting with modification of health behaviour. This is what Lifestyle Medicine does.
Differences between Lifestyle Medicine and conventional medicine
Conventional medicine focuses on the care of sick people, striving to improve conditions through treating the symptoms of disease.
Lifestyle Medicine focuses on understanding the root cause of illness, which in Australia is 80% likely to be related to sub-optimal lifestyle habits. Fixing illness at this level allows for true healing.
Lifestyle Medicine can help prevent a full 80% of all chronic diseases and associated premature deaths worldwide, based on existing knowledge we already have and can easily apply.
In Australasia, the field has grown under the guidance of ASLM (Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine), while internationally, the field has been growing rapidly since around 2004, now with numerous societies and colleges around the world.
The information, expert help and specialist knowledge is already out there, but for many patients, their only access point is their GPs, who may not have time or knowledge themselves to offer lifestyle medicine choices.
The result is over-dependency on drugs and expensive treatments for specific conditions that might be better addressed through changes in lifestyle and everyday habits.
Lifestyle related health problems are preventable and in many cases, reversible, so as the name suggests, Lifestyle Medicine addresses both the “cause”, and the “cause-of-the-cause” and can often reverse early to medium onset chronic disease by assisting patients through evidence-based lifestyle and behaviour modification.
Be empowered, make educated choices and take positive actions that can literally change your future.
Give Lifestyle Medicine a chance. It promises no short cuts but instead promotes a lifelong approach that ensures people can live healthier, longer lives.