Lifestyle medicine quickly finds its way into mainstream discussions about chronic disease, food, and long-term patient care. Even though more doctors are using this holistic approach to medical treatment, many of us are left thinking, what is lifestyle medicine, anyway? Let’s look at some of the most often asked questions concerning this rapidly developing health industry.
What Exactly Is Lifestyle Medicine?
“Lifestyle medicine is an evidence-based approach that combines lifestyle elements into patient treatment, with a whole-food, plant-based diet as the cornerstone,” Stoll added. “The objective is to prevent, postpone, and cure illnesses that are caused by lifestyle choices.”
While traditional Western allopathic medicine emphasizes illness treatment, lifestyle medicine ultimately seeks to eliminate the source of disease. These two types of medicine—allopathic and lifestyle—should ideally complement one another, and most doctors who practice lifestyle medicine do so as an adjunct to their conventional training.
Lifestyle Medicine Levels
Lifestyle medicine may be done on three different levels.
The first level entails all health care practitioners acknowledging that lifestyle choices impact health status and are a major modulator of response to pharmacological or surgical therapies. All practitioners are urged to provide lifestyle counseling in addition to standard treatment techniques.
The second level of care is specialist care. Lifestyle Medicine therapies are the primary focus of therapy, and pharmacological or surgical treatments are employed as needed as an addition.
Population/community health initiatives and policies are the third level. Lifestyle intervention recommendations should be incorporated in public health/preventive medicine guidelines and chronic illness prevention and treatment plans.
What Is the Process of Lifestyle Medicine?
The concept of lifestyle medicine is founded on the belief that the body can cure itself. Through lifestyle intervention, it focuses on treating the complete physical and mental systems to promote overall function and well-being.
Choosing lifestyle medicine as a therapeutic option does not imply a rejection of all traditional medicine. Treatment with lifestyle medicine can be used with other standard or western medicine therapies. A lifestyle medicine practitioner assists the patient in correcting their course and establishing healthy behaviors. The body cannot begin to mend itself unless it has reached a certain level of health.
A lifestyle medicine practitioner will most likely begin with the following:
Changes in Diet
Lifestyle medicine emphasizes removing pollutants, processed foods, and extra sweets from the diet and replacing them with plant-based, whole organic foods. If you want a healthiwealthi lifestyle, then it is time to bring some changes into your diet.
Taking into Account Food Sensitivities
Intolerances to common substances can create a slew of symptoms all over the body that make normal function impossible. If these components are not removed from the diet, the body will battle irritation and struggle to digest.
Anaphylaxis Testing
Allergies to foods or medications might result in internal problems with long-term consequences. A lifestyle medicine practitioner may recommend testing for specific allergens to remove them from the diet.
With the help of this post, now you know about lifestyle medicine and its levels. If you want a healthwealthi lifestyle, bring some changes to your diet. We hope you might have found it insightful.
