What are the Main Benefits of Lifestyle Medicine?

Lifestyle medicine is the use of evidence-based lifestyle therapeutic intervention, such as a plant-based eating pattern, whole-food, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, positive social connection, and avoidance of risky substances as a primary modality delivered by clinicians certified and trained in this specialty, to prevent, treat and often reverse chronic disease.

A lifestyle medicine physician is a medical practitioner who has received additional training in healthy lifestyle variables such as diet, sleep, exercise, stress management, drug addiction, and relationship development. They educate and empower patients by providing them with tools to help them modify their behaviors and take charge of their health.

No, rather lifestyle medicine is a therapeutic approach to prevent, treat and reverse lifestyle-related chronic diseases and is the foundation of conventional medicine.

Practically all clinical practice guidelines for the most common chronic disorders recommend lifestyle medicine as first-line therapy.

Almost 80 percent or more of all healthcare spending in the United States is associated with treating diseases resulting from bad lifestyle choices. It may be addressed to some extent by adopting a better lifestyle. Chronic illnesses and disorders such as hypertension, stroke, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, obesity, and many forms of cancer are among the most frequent, expensive, and avoidable health problems.

Lifestyle medicines may assist you in making the necessary adjustments to improve your health, manage or eliminate chronic illnesses, reduce your reliance on medications, and feel your best.

The six pillars of lifestyle medicine are:

• Take up a plant-predominate and nutrient-dense eating pattern
• Individualizing and optimizing your physical activity plans
• Getting quality sleep
• Using healthy coping strategies to manage stress
• Forming and maintaining positive relationships
• Stopping the usage of tobacco use, alcohol, and other unhealthy habits

Practitioners of lifestyle medicine concentrate on the common underlying lifestyle variables that cause disease and treat their patients by implementing positive behavioral adjustments into their patients’ lives.

On the other hand, functional medicine practitioners strive to discover how and why the disease arises, and they restore health by treating the root cause of the disease.

Everyone may benefit from adopting a healthy lifestyle, especially those suffering from chronic conditions such as:

• Obesity
• Diabetes
• Hypertension
• Heart disease
• Crohn’s disease
• High cholesterol
• Ulcerative colitis
• Autoimmune diseases
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

If you are looking for a lifestyle medicine doctor or lifestyle medicine clinic near you, the Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine can help you. Call us or schedule an appointment today. We serve patients from Charleston, Mt. Pleasant, Summerville, North Charleston SC, Ladson SC, Hanahan SC, James Island SC, John’s Island SC, Daniel Island SC, all of South Carolina, Nationally, and Internationally. Patients routinely fly into Charleston to be evaluated by COEM and to enjoy this beautiful city which is a Condé Nast and Travel and Leisure Top Domestic and International Tourist Destination.