Is Lifestyle Medicine Real Medicine?

There is a misconception that lifestyle medicine is not real medicine. Now, I’d like to make this very clear when a doctor like me specializes in lifestyle medicine we go through rigorous postgraduate level training in all the aspects of healthy living, nutrition, physical activity, sleep, science, psychology, social connectedness, unhealthy substance exposure and managing addictions as well as stress management. So lifestyle medicine looks at a very broad and holistic view on our lives as humans. But it is based in science. We look at clinical trials, we look at scientific research, and we examine the facts to see whether what we are proposing as interventions have the same or better power than options like medication.

And I can tell you that the evidence is overwhelming. For lifestyle medicine because it goes to the root cause of the problem. If I have type two diabetes and I change my diet and physical activity, my diabetes will go away. Whereas if I have type two diabetes and I simply treat that with medication without changing or addressing the factors that are driving that medical condition, I’m going to need to take more and more and more medicines with time, and I’m going to be dealing with the side effects of those medicines in the long term.

So lifestyle medicine has the power to go to the root cause of lifestyle related conditions, reverse or eliminate those factors so that you actually treat the medical condition from the source.