The American College of
Lifestyle Medicine
Advancing evidence-based lifestyle medicine to prevent,
treat and reverse non-communicable, chronic disease
Welcome to ACLM. Our new website design will enhance your ability to find and navigate lifestyle medicine education and member access. As with any technology change, we hope the transition is seamless. We are constantly monitoring the site to see if your journey encounters any barriers. Thank you for your patience and continued passion for healing and health restoration.
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What is lifestyle medicine?
Lifestyle medicine is a medical specialty that uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions as a primary modality to treat chronic conditions including, but not limited to, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. Lifestyle medicine certified clinicians are trained to apply evidence-based, whole-person, prescriptive lifestyle change to treat and, when used intensively, often reverse such conditions. Applying the six pillars of lifestyle medicine—a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances and positive social connections—also provides effective prevention for these conditions.
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) is the medical professional society for physicians and other professionals dedicated to clinical and worksite practice of lifestyle medicine as the foundation of a transformed and sustainable health care system.
We Value:
Evidence
Treatment is based on results and outcomes supported by an abundance of published, verified research.
High Standards
We hold ourselves to the highest levels of competency, professionalism and ethics.
Integrity
We act fairly, in good faith and honestly.
Financial Transparency
We undergo an annual audit of our financials and take our fiduciary responsibility seriously to our members.
Health Equity
We recognize the impact of social determinants of health and strive to make lifestyle medicine accessible and effective for all.
Whole Person Health
We value the many aspects of health and well-being required for health restoration.
Explore our network of certified clinicians.
Evidence overwhelmingly supports the efficacy of lifestyle medicine.
Lifestyle medicine can address up to 80% of chronic diseases. A lifestyle medicine approach to population care has the potential to arrest the decades-long rise in the prevalence of chronic conditions and their burdensome costs. Patient and provider satisfaction often results from a lifestyle medicine approach, which strongly aligns the field with the Quintuple Aim of better health outcomes, lower cost, improved patient satisfaction, improved provider well-being, and advancement of health equity, in addition to its alignment with planetary health. Lifestyle medicine is the foundation for a redesigned, value-based and equitable healthcare delivery system, leading to whole person health.
Five things you can do to eat healthier on a tight budget
Inflation is straining household budgets but there are many low-cost, nutritious and tasty food options that health clinicians can explore with patients as part of a lifestyle medicine treatment plan.
There is a growing threat to our national security. It’s probably not what you think it is.
A quiet threat to United States national security is infiltrating the health and wellness of the brave men and women who serve. The growing epidemic of chronic disease in the U.S. has not spared the armed forces, where almost 66 percent of service members are considered to be either overweight or have obesity.
Lifestyle medicine helped save this physician from burnout.
I was 32, seeing about 30 patients a shift for Yale New Haven Health. I liked my job — the adrenaline rush from saving a life is medicine’s ultimate reward. But 80 to 85 percent of the diagnoses I made were straightforward, not immediate life-threatening events or complicated medical dilemmas to solve.
How a commitment to lifestyle changes helped one woman face cancer.
"Terri Schon’s cancer diagnosis in 2019 left her with a nagging question she will never answer. Why? Cancer didn’t run in her family. She had no reason to believe it was genetic. She couldn’t stop wondering if there was something wrong in her lifestyle that caused the disease."
“Your results are normal!” The story of how one woman with diabetes and chronic fatigue restored her health.
"Deena Clark had type 2 diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver and chronic fatigue when she discovered the lifestyle medicine program at St. Luke’s Health System in Boise, Idaho. The intensive program featured a multidisciplinary health team committed to helping her make sustainable changes to her health habits related to the six pillars of lifestyle medicine defined by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine — nutrition, physical activity, stress management, restorative sleep, positive social connection and
How a Mayo Clinic doctor who survived stage 4 cancer and a heart transplant inspires patients.
"Dr. Mussallem, a breast cancer and lifestyle medicine specialist, comes to appointments prepared with scientific evidence backing up why healthy lifestyle choices matter when it comes to breast cancer prevention and management care. Her patients are experiencing a range of emotions that accompany a breast cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatments like chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. Fear. Confusion. Determination. 'But patients welcome the opportunity to seize a sense of control over their disease and embrace the six
Communities besieged by chronic diseases need lifestyle medicine. Meet a doctor determined to deliver it there.
"Margarita Schneider-Munoz was in her early 20s when a nurse practitioner reviewing her family medical history shook her head and said something Schneider-Munoz never forgot. 'I am so sorry,' the nurse practitioner told her. She was referring to a family history reflecting that Schneider-Munoz’s grandmother was diagnosed with breast and ovarian cancer in her mid-40s, and that Schneider-Munoz’s father suffered his first heart attack while also in his 40s. The nurse practitioner meant well but her
Lifestyle medicine works. So why can’t physicians get paid to practice it?
"As a passionate advocate for lifestyle medicine, Padmaja Patel, MD, DipABLM, knows many clinicians committed to practicing the fast-growing field and dedicated to restoring their patients’ health through proven, evidence-based treatments. But they struggle with financial unsustainability in a system geared more toward “sick care.” The predominant U.S. fee-for-service health care reimbursement model rewards clinicians for how many procedures and services they perform, not for making their patients healthy again."
A health message so simple and effective that everyone should be doing it.
"Give a patient a sense of ownership over their health, and you give them hope. That’s the approach taken by Sean Hashmi, MD, MS, FASN, Regional Director Clinical Nutrition and Weight Management for Kaiser Permanente Southern California, when prescribing treatment for his patients, many of whom have obesity. Ownership makes patients active participants in their care, not helpless bystanders. 'The best hope in the world is when they feel like they are in the driver’s seat,' Dr.
I AM ACLM
A showcase of diverse disciplines, personalities, and passions to promote membership and lifestyle medicine. ACLM members matter and are united in our efforts to eradicate chronic disease and transform health care as we know it today! We launched the #IamACLM campaign in June 2022 to increase the understanding of the therapeutic modalities of lifestyle medicine to help eradicate chronic disease. This campaign celebrates the face of our membership and how ACLM supports their scope
We invite you to explore our ever-growing educational offerings, and the key events and conferences which keep our members at the cutting edge of lifestyle medicine and its clinical applications.
Featured Continuing Education Offerings
Introduction to Lifestyle Medicine
This course defines lifestyle medicine, discusses the evidence base, explains six key interventions, and demonstrates how lifestyle medicine has the power to treat and often reverse disease.
Food as Medicine
This course will educate and equip clinicians with knowledge of dietary patterns shown to prevent, treat, and reverse diseases. There are four offerings available currently in this course series.
Foundations of Lifestyle Medicine Board Review
An evidence-based course designed to provide a review and successfully prepare candidates for the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine (ABLM) Certification Exam.
LM2022 — Redesigning Healthcare Better
ACLM is hosting a hybrid conference on November 13-16, 2022. The in-person event will be at the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Florida. This is the premier conference delivering expert continuing education with a focus on lifestyle medicine - the therapeutic dose of proper nutrition, regular physical activity, social connection, restorative sleep, stress management, and avoidance of risky substances. The LM2022 conference theme of “Redesigning Healthcare Better” is the call to action to create a future where lifestyle medicine is offered as the first, affordable, and accessible therapy for non-communicable diseases.
LIFESTYLE MEDICINE CERTIFICATION
Most physicians and health professionals receive little to no education on nutrition, physical activity, sleep, social connectivity, and the avoidance of risky substance use which are the six pillars of Lifestyle Medicine.
Certification in Lifestyle Medicine indicates that the individual has mastered the science of preventing, treating, and reversing chronic disease in an evidence-based manner with official acknowledgement from the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine (for physicians and specialists) or the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (for professionals and practitioners).