Integrative medicine
What is lifestyle medicine?
Lifestyle medicine, also part of integrative medicine, is the use of evidence-based lifestyle therapeutic intervention to change personal habits and behaviors in order to treat different types of chronic conditions. It focuses on lifestyle choices and self-care to help improve your overall health and well-being.
Treatment can include:
- Modifying your diet to include whole-food and plant predominant eating patterns
- Increasing physical activity
- Restorative sleep
- Avoiding risky substances (nicotine, alcohol, drugs)
- Managing your stress
- Creating positive social connections
Lifestyle medicine treats the underlying causes of disease without increasing the need for medication or any procedures. Diseases that can be treated preventatively with lifestyle medicine include:
- Diabetes type II
- Obesity
- Substance abuse
- Insomnia
- Anxiety and depression
- Hypertension and high cholesterol
- Peripheral vascular disease and Coronary artery disease
- Thyroid disease
- GERD and IBS
- Liver disease
- Gout