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Behavior change
Behavior change

What is lifestyle medicine?

Lifestyle medicine is an evidence-based medical specialty that applies therapeutic lifestyle interventions to treat, reverse, and prevent chronic conditions like cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. By empowering patients to make lifestyle behavior changes in six interconnected pillars—optimal nutrition, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, connectedness, and risky substance avoidance—lifestyle medicine aims to eliminate the root cause of a disease. And it works: studies have shown that lifestyle medicine can impact up to 80% of chronic diseases.

The State of Healthcare

Why is lifestyle medicine is important?

The rise in costly disease management, avoidable hospitalizations, clinician burnout, and polypharmacy are symptoms of a healthcare system in crisis. Addressing these challenges requires more than incremental fixes—it demands a fundamental shift in how we deliver and prioritize care.

Today, an estimated 60% of Americans, including far too many children, live with at least one chronic disease, contributing to the nearly $4.5 trillion in annual healthcare costs borne by taxpayers, even though the vast majority of these conditions are treatable. This epidemic also takes a toll on medical professionals, with 62% of physicians reporting feelings of burnout.

Lifestyle medicine offers a solution

Delivered at scale, lifestyle medicine provides the foundation for a reimagined, high-value healthcare system that is cost-efficient, patient-centric, and equitable. From urban centers to rural clinics, across specialties and populations, health systems nationwide are rapidly integrating lifestyle medicine—restoring health and reigniting clinicians’ passion for true healing.

The six pillars of lifestyle medicine

Optimal Nutrition

Poor overall diet quality is the leading single cause of premature death in America. Optimal nutrition is essential to the root-cause treatment of chronic conditions. The American College of Lifestyle Medicine recommends an eating pattern based predominantly on a variety of minimally processed vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds.

Physical Activity

Regular physical activity is essential to offset a sedentary lifestyle, manage chronic conditions, and support overall health. Adults should aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity per week to help prevent issues like osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease.

Restorative Sleep

Unhealthy sleep is associated with the most common causes of premature death and disability, and it can lead to an increased risk of impaired memory, dementia, and cardiovascular disease. Quality sleep powerfully supports chronic disease treatment and overall well-being. Adults should strive to create the right conditions to get 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep every night to allow the body to rest and repair.

Stress Management

Chronic stress can exacerbate health issues like cardiovascular disease, depression, insulin resistance, and many others. Stress management strategies are crucial for overall health as well as in the treatment of chronic disease.

Connectedness

Meaningful interactions are a key factor in human happiness, longevity and the treatment of chronic diseases. Strong social connections, as well as having a sense of purpose and meaning, affect physical, mental, and emotional health, and can even reduce the risk of depression and dementia.

Risky Substance Avoidance

Risky substances like alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs dramatically increase the risk of death and chronic disease, and exacerbate the ill effects of disease. Other risky behaviors and exposures can negatively impact mental and physical health. Addressing these behaviors with evidence-based approaches is an essential element of health restoration.

Aruna Nathan, MD, DipABLM

“ACLM is the only organization that offers the clinical framework to deliver whole person care in the real world, right now through team collaboration and the six key pillars of that put the patient first.”

Rak Jotwani, MD, DipABLM

“Everyone’s chasing the latest wellness edge. But here’s the thing: none of it matters if you don’t have the basics down first…eating mostly whole foods, moving your body regularly, prioritizing sleep, connecting with people you care about, managing stress in sustainable ways…These are the fundamentals. The foundation. The behaviors that actually create health.”

Mahima Gulati, MD, DipABLM, FACLM

“I cannot imagine a future where lifestyle medicine is not the bedrock of a functioning healthcare system. Just like a human being needs oxygen to breathe and live, our healthcare needs lifestyle medicine not just to thrive, but to survive.”

Nathanael Smith, MSN, APRN, FNP-C, RN, DipACLM

“Joining ACLM gave me the tools and evidence-based training I had long been searching for to truly address the root causes of chronic disease. As a board-certified lifestyle medicine professional, I’m now able to make a meaningful, lasting difference in my patients’ lives—and in my own.”

Why now, what about lifestyle medicine is so compelling?

Recommended & Evidence-based

Lifestyle modification is recommended as a first-line intervention in clinical guidelines for chronic disease management and prevention, including those for type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and obesity. Lifestyle medicine is the evidence-based medical specialty that standardizes clinical delivery of lifestyle change to improve patient outcomes, reduce medication dependence and reverse chronic disease. 

Whole-person, purposeful care

Rather than masking symptoms, lifestyle medicine addresses the root causes of disease through six interconnected pillars: nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress management, connectedness, and risky substance avoidance. By focusing on the whole person and identifying personal motivation and readiness to change, lifestyle medicine helps patients achieve meaningful, lasting physical and mental health improvements.  

Team-based, Integrated delivery

Lifestyle medicine puts the patient at the center of a multidisciplinary team approach. Physicians, nurses, dietitians, health coaches, mental health professionals and others work together across care settings and disciplines, empowering patients and their families with resources and support. This collaborative model strengthens relationships, improves adherence, and leads to sustainable health outcomes. 

delivers high-value, cost-effective care

Lifestyle medicine reduces emergency visits, hospitalizations and reliance on high-cost medications and procedures with the added side effect of aligning clinical work with purpose and outcomes. The result? Improved clinician satisfaction, patient safety and system efficiency. 

 

improves access and patient engagement

Lifestyle medicine makes the opportunity to experience a healthier, more vibrant life accessible to all. By supporting self-efficacy, leveraging community-based resources and integrating care into digital and non-traditional settings, lifestyle medicine lowers barriers to health and empowers patients, regardless of income, geography, or cultural and ethnic background, to actively engage in their health.

a sustainable solution for the future of health

Lifestyle medicine is not a fleeting trend but a powerful sustainable solution to transform the way we address chronic disease. As the nation’s medical professional society dedicated to advancing the field, ACLM is leading the way toward an improved system of care, improved individual health, and happier, healthier communities across our nation and world. Together, we are creating a sustainable model of health, improving lives today and building a healthier future for generations to come.

Join the leading edge of healthcare transformation

From major health systems to health plans, universities and forward-thinking companies, lifestyle medicine has gained traction with countless organizations across the country.

Together, we are proving that sustainable whole-person health isn’t just the future—it’s happening now.

We work closely with companies and organizations that share our belief in the benefits of lifestyle medicine. Together, we are committed to advancing a sustainable system and standard of care through lifestyle medicine.

Connect with us

ACLM’s Health Systems Council (HSC) unites leading health systems dedicated to transforming healthcare by integrating lifestyle medicine. Members collaborate to share best practices, tackle challenges, and drive the systematic adoption of lifestyle medicine to address chronic disease.

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ACLM’s Innovators Council unites leading health systems, health plans, ACOs, and self-funded employers committed to transforming healthcare. These forward-thinking, risk-bearing stakeholders are integrating lifestyle medicine to achieve the Quintuple Aim and drive sustainable systems change.

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ACLM partners with colleges and universities nationwide to embed lifestyle medicine curriculum across the spectrum of medical and healthcare professional education.

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ACLM’s network of Platinum Partners is a select group of organizations and companies that share our commitment to reducing the burden of chronic disease. Through novel products and solutions, these partners are invited to share their work with our clinical community.

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ACLM’s annual conference brings together mission-aligned companies and organizations whose products, services, and solutions support the principles of lifestyle medicine. All partners are carefully vetted to ensure alignment with ACLM’s values, creating a high-quality experience for attendees and sponsors alike. 

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ACLM partners with mission-aligned nonprofits dedicated to making lifestyle medicine the foundation of health care. Together, we build networks, launch strategic initiatives, and collaborate on campaigns that drive lasting impact and shared success.

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Redefining health care takes a united effort. Purpose-driven partners and philanthropic leaders power ACLM’s mission—igniting the steps needed to transform our system into one that truly treats, reverses, and prevents chronic disease.

Make an Impact

More than a medical society, ACLM is a catalyst for change

By uniting clinicians, educators, health systems, organizations and policy leaders, we’re building a future where evidence-based lifestyle medicine forms the foundation of health and healthcare.

With members like you, we’re moving beyond symptom management to create a new healthcare paradigm that empowers clinicians, supports patients and enables communities to thrive. Together, we are putting the ‘care’ back into healthcare..

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