What is lifestyle medicine?
Lifestyle medicine is a branch of medicine focused on preventive healthcare and self-care dealing with research, prevention, and treatment of disorders caused by lifestyle factors and preventable causes of death such as nutrition, physical inactivity, chronic stress, and self-destructive behaviors including the consumption of tobacco products and drug or alcohol abuse.
Lifestyle medicine focuses on educating and motivating patients to improve the quality of their lives by changing personal habits and behaviors around the use of a whole food, plant-predominant dietary lifestyle, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and positive social connection.
Given that roughly 70% of all aliments patients bring to a doctor are the result of a preventable disease caused by our lifestyles, there is certainly a huge need for lifestyle medicine. Fingers crossed it will address two trends
- People are becoming chronically diseased at an every younger age
- Life expectancy in the US and elsewhere is becoming shorter for the first time since 1990
Within clinic I offer a variety of treatments to assist clients to manage their stress and some clients report they also have a positive impact on their sleeping patterns. In addition, where appropriate I share my knowledge from my Health Coaching qualifications.
