Research Output Journal of Biological and Applied Science 3(3):15-18, 2024

ROJBAS Publications ONLINE ISSN: 1115-9200

https://rojournals.org/roj-biological-and-applied-science/ PRINT ISSN: 1115-6120

Page | 15

The Impact of Lifestyle Medicine on Chronic Disease

Prevention
Nassimbwa Kabanda D.
Faculty of Medicine Kampala International University Uganda
ABSTRACT
Chronic illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and hypertension, are major contributors to
mortality worldwide and are significantly affected by lifestyle concerns such as unhealthy eating habits,
insufficient physical activity, and smoking. Lifestyle medicine is a scientifically supported method for
dealing with various diseases by encouraging healthy habits that help prevent, control, and perhaps cure
long-term illnesses. The present review examines the efficacy of lifestyle medicine treatments, the
prevalent chronic illnesses associated with lifestyle choices, and the obstacles encountered in the
widespread implementation of this strategy. Empirical data indicates that lifestyle medicine is not only
economically efficient but also meaningful. However, obstacles such as insufficient knowledge and
education must be overcome to guarantee its broad acceptance. The combination of lifestyle changes with
pharmaceutical therapies has significant potential in mitigating the worldwide impact of chronic illnesses.
Keywords: Lifestyle medicine, Chronic disease prevention, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), Health
interventions, Nutrition.
INTRODUCTION
Chronic diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide. Infectious diseases are of great concern, but
chronic diseases account for a larger number of deaths. It is now widely accepted that lifestyle-related risk
factors influence one's development of chronic disease. Common risk factors that lead to the development
of chronic diseases are tobacco use (cigarette smoking), obesity, lack of physical activity, poor dietary
habits (including one's hydration habits), and lack of sleep. Chronic diseases often coexist and are largely
responsible for early morbidity and mortality in men, women, and even the unborn. According to WHO,
eight out of the 10 leading causes of deaths in the world are chronic diseases. In the US, six out of the 10
leading causes of deaths are chronic diseases. In young Americans, i.e. under the age of fifty, chronic
diseases account for 75% of deaths. Lifestyle medicine refers to the practice of assisting individuals and
families in adopting and sustaining healthy lifestyle choices. Such changes have been shown to prevent,
treat, and often reverse the course of chronic diseases that are prevalent in the developed world (e.g.,
heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, obesity, and other stress-related and lifestyle-
related disorders). Lifestyle medicine recognizes that lifestyle practices such as nutrition, physical activity,
stress management, and other healthy life choices are essential components of health and the treatment of
disease. It also emphasizes the recognition and removal of unhealthy life choices and/or habits that can
adversely impact health. Such behavior changes are crucial to preventing and treating chronic disease and
must occur contemporaneously with the prescription of medication. Improved outcomes can be attained
when the medical models of pharmacotherapy and lifestyle modification (i.e. lifestyle medicine) are
integrated together. Lifestyle medicine has matured as a scientifically recognized field of inquiry and
practice. It shares a common body of knowledge and specialty training programs, with a growing cadre of
board-certified specialists, postdoctoral education fellowships, and residents in training. Lifestyle
medicine has the potential to be a key component in the goal of achieving a cure for the chronic disease
pandemic.

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License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 UNDERSTANDING LIFESTYLE MEDICINE
According to the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, lifestyle medicine is the use of lifestyle
interventions and their application through comprehensive education and support as the treatment of
choice for specific clinical conditions and for the amelioration of overall health and well-being. Lifestyle
medicine may be utilized to prevent, arrest, and treat chronic disease and improve well-being through a
variety of lifestyle approaches. These include a nutritious diet, physical activity, smoking cessation,
moderated or eliminated alcohol intake, and appropriate sleep, stress management, and social interaction Page | 16
[1, 2]. Compared to other health interventions, especially pharmaceutical interventions, lifestyle medicine
is effective, safe, cost-friendly, and can be applied widely. Therefore, it was preselected as the primary
intervention in the main focus. Chronic non-communicable diseases (NCD) are diseases that cannot be
transmitted from one person to another like infectious diseases, but they can cause severe health
impairment. NCDs include cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes
mellitus. In countries where lifestyle medicine is already widely practiced, NCDs are preventable and
controllable [3]. In recent decades, the prevalence rate of NCDs in developing countries has grown
rapidly. Poorly controlled NCDs have devastating impacts on people's lives and might even bring concern
to countries' social and economic developments. Hence, it is vital for developing countries to take action
against NCDs. One priority to more effectively address these chronic diseases is to provide a better
understanding of the current situation at the grassroots level, carry out awareness promotion, and
mobilize actions from the bottom. In particular, lifestyle medicine should be adopted as the first step to
addressing chronic non-communicable diseases [4].
COMMON CHRONIC DISEASES AND LIFESTYLE FACTORS
The term chronic disease usually refers to a disease that persists over time, and the five most common
chronic diseases are acne, allergies, arthritis, asthma, and back pain. The first four of these common
chronic diseases could all be based on lifestyle factors. Acne is a condition when the skin produces too
much oil. There are a lot of factors involved in the production of oil, including a bad diet, air quality,
lifestyle habits like smoking, and general hygiene. It is published that adopting a low glycemic index diet
may improve acne. Allergies are a condition of the immune system, and a lot of lifestyle factors might
influence it, like stress and not exposing children to enough germs [5]. Asthma is hard to understand
how lifestyle might play a role, but for example, the incidence of asthma is much higher in urbanized areas
where air quality varies than in places where the air is of better quality. Arthritis is a very broad term that
describes painful conditions of the joints. For osteoarthritis, wear and tear of the joints caused by age,
overweight, and injuries might be contributing to its development. Obesity might be unhealthy for a lot
of reasons, a big one being that it increases the risk to develop non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which in
turn can lead to a lot more serious liver conditions. Another example of a chronic disease with links to
lifestyle factors is back pain, which can be caused by cigarette smoking, high BMI, lack of exercise, and
gender, with females being more likely to suffer from it [6]. Common lifestyle-related chronic diseases
that don't involve the skin, and not including acne and allergies, would be obesity, hypertension,
hypercholesterolemia, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, osteoarthritis, and chronic low back pain.
Chronic diseases, and not only obesity, can be prevented by lifestyle interventions [7].
EVIDENCE-BASED STRATEGIES IN LIFESTYLE MEDICINE
As the focus in addressing chronic diseases is shifted more towards population-wide, evidence-based
preventative measures, further clinical research is warranted to examine the role, efficacy, and impact of
lifestyle medicine intervention. National lifestyle medicine initiatives called "Health and Wellness" have
been developed, based on previous successful community Health and Wellness initiatives conducted in
Finnish municipalities. A lifestyle medicine trial has been organized in five study municipalities, aimed at
reducing major chronic disease risk factors with long-term, free-of-charge lifestyle medicine intervention.
Study municipalities will be compared with five matched control municipalities with no outside
intervention. Outcomes include changes in chronic disease risk factors, lifestyle habits, health-related
quality of life (HRQoL), and healthcare costs [8]. Clinical, randomized studies are designed to evaluate
the efficacy and impact of the lifestyle medicine intervention, as part of ongoing national initiatives. In
these studies, lifestyle changes in groups randomly assigned to either intervention or control groups will
be compared. The impact of changes in lifestyle and risk factors on the incidence of new chronic diseases,
illness days, medications, rehabilitation, and health-related HRQoL will be evaluated. In addition, the
nationwide telehealth intervention with practitioners, called "Safer 5", will be studied for its reception,
perspectives, and impact on lifestyle changes, as well as on properties suitable for nationwide
implementation and scaling [9]. The HoMET (Health and Wellness-oriented Municipality and Expert
Network) project aims to develop, implement, and conduct research on a community Health and Wellness
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License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
initiative to address the growing burden of chronic diseases. Such an initiative is warranted as two
previous pilot studies showed that municipality-wide healthy lifestyle intervention can be effective, and in
some areas, healthcare costs savings can exceed the costs of intervention depending on the risk profile of
the municipality and intervention. The HoMET intervention consists of municipality-wide, free-of-charge
lifestyle medicine, health counseling, and other Health and Wellness services. It increases awareness
among residents of the individual and societal consequences of non-healthy lifestyle habits and pleads
everyone to take responsibility for health. Containment of lifestyle-related chronic diseases requires joint Page | 17
efforts and actions from individuals, families, working communities, schools, and municipal services [10].
In sum, lifestyle medicine seems both a needed, feasible, and warranted approach against chronic diseases.
The approach is still novel and clinically unstudied at a deeper level, particularly outside the USA and in
Europe. As individuals increasingly take responsibility for their health, societal structure and facilitating
lifestyle medicine services should follow individuals' initiatives and support healthier lifestyle choices.
Nowadays, joining forces of the government, communities, and the healthcare system is essential for
public health [11].
IMPLEMENTATION AND CHALLENGES IN LIFESTYLE MEDICINE
With the growing recognition of the role of lifestyle behaviors in health, as well as the increased stress on
prevention of lifestyle-related chronic disease, there is a heightening concern on how to best implement
lifestyle medicine and effectively and conveniently disseminate its health optimizing practices. Lifestyle
medicine, or the assessment and treatment of lifestyle behaviors under the premise that these behaviors
are factors that can be modified and feasibly changed, is increasingly becoming a tool for and an area of
emphasis in health maintenance, chronic disease prevention, and overall health literacy and well-being
[12]. Lifestyle medicine intervention, such as that applied in workplace-based wellness programs, has
shown to have statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in major cardiovascular
risk factors. Lifestyle medicine strategies hold great potential for long-term and far-reaching population
health improvements from the individual all the way to the health policy level. However, there currently
exist barriers to the comprehensive and consistent use of lifestyle medicine intervention. With these
barriers in mind, opportunities for implementing lifestyle medicine as an adjunct to usual care are
discussed, recent approaches to addressing these barriers, and endeavors for feasible dissemination of
health optimizing lifestyle practices and overall lifestyle medicine integration with health care delivery on
both the provider and consumer side are reviewed [13]. Although lifestyle medicine and the congruent
term health promotion have both been in the literature for about 30 years, and after 30 years of research
demonstrating the effectiveness of lifestyle medicine intervention in a variety of applications, lifestyle
medicine is not a term recognized or understood by most health care providers or those who seek health
care services. Even in research publications or scientific venues where it might be expected to be
commonplace, it is often not employed. Lifestyle medicine is often broadly and synonymously used with
other terms such as health promotion and preventive medicine. Impediments to the practical application
and effective and consistent dissemination of lifestyle medicine strategies are the same obstacles that
previous, current, and ongoing population health efforts grapple with. These barriers include universal
misconceptions about the role of personal lifestyle behavior on health, health care provider awareness,
familiarity, and training in population health research, intervention design and implementation, lack of
provider consideration of population health lifestyle behavior modification strategies in the clinical
setting, and misunderstandings by consumers of the complexities and nuances behind health behaviors
and disease state involvement [14].
CONCLUSION
Lifestyle medicine represents a powerful and underutilized tool in the prevention and management of
chronic diseases. By focusing on sustainable behavior changes in areas such as nutrition, physical activity,
and stress management, lifestyle medicine offers a cost-effective and holistic alternative to conventional
pharmaceutical treatments. As chronic diseases continue to rise, especially in developing countries, the
implementation of lifestyle interventions can play a crucial role in reversing the trend. However,
successful integration into healthcare systems requires overcoming challenges related to awareness,
training, and accessibility. Governments, healthcare providers, and communities must collaborate to
embrace lifestyle medicine as a central component of chronic disease management.
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CITATION: Nassimbwa Kabanda D. The Impact of Lifestyle Medicine on Chronic

Disease Prevention. Research Output Journal of Biological and Applied Science, 2024
3(3):15-18.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.