Religion and Spirituality in Lifestyle Medicine

Abstract

Decades of research now support the positive relationship of religion/spirituality (R/S) with physical health, mental health, morbidity, and mortality. While lifestyle medicine (LM) practitioners often recognize R/S as important, they can face common challenges of how to integrate R/S into their holistic, patient-centered care. To help, this article presents a faith-practice framework, as a starting point for considering incorporating R/S into LM practice—in light of common concerns and challenges, as a guide for patient-centered care through adjusting lifestyle prescriptions to accommodate individualized R/S beliefs and practices for improved health behavior and outcomes, and as an encouragement to stimulate openness for positive, thoughtful discussion into the future of R/S in LM practice and research.