Considerations on research in the field of lifestyle medicine

Abstract

Healthcare systems from numerous countries are predominantly built on a disease-treatment model rather than a proactive health-prevention model. As the life expectancy has increased over time, the quality of one’s longevity is compromised by numerous chronic diseases which can be prevented. Unforeseeably, midlife mortality (among people aged 24 to 44) has increased in the last two decades as a 60-years review of mortality in the United States reveals. The most critical causes of these changes are linked to unhealthy behaviors such as unhealthy food consumption, sedentarism, smoking, alcohol use, drug addiction, workaholism, inadequate stress management or sleeplessness, all representing starting points or risk factors for diabetes, obesity, atherosclerosis, cardiovascular, neuropsychological and autoimmune diseases. Lifestyle Medicine is based on six pillars: whole-food, plant predominant diet, regular physical activity, quality sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances and social connection, all playing a major role in treating health problems. Furthermore, being given the lack of studies focused on lifestyle medicine, leading national experts were summoned to analyze the existing data and gaps regarding behaviors, chronic diseases including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, inflammatory and autoimmune imbalances or other pathologies.