Background

Approximately 60% of adults in the United States suffer from chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. Additionally, 40% of American adults have two or more chronic diseases. As a result, chronic diseases are amongst the most prevalent types of conditions graduating medical students will see in their future training and practice, regardless of chosen specialty.

Lifestyle medicine is a rapidly growing field of medicine that focuses on helping patients to prevent, treat and even reverse chronic disease through the use of lifestyle measures.  Adoption of a core set of  healthy lifestyle behaviors has been shown to reduce the incidence of chronic disease by about 80%, as well as reduce and sometimes reverse disease progression.  Having seen the data, the American Medical Association passed a resolution in 2018 calling for, “...increased lifestyle medicine education in medical school education, graduate medical education, and continuing medical education, including but not limited to education in nutrition, physical activity, behavior change, sleep health, tobacco cessation, alcohol use reduction, emotional wellness, and stress reduction.”

Although awareness of the lifestyle medicine pillars is increasing rapidly, curricula still fall far short of what is needed to adequately provide students with the skills they need to guide and coach patients.  The chronic disease crisis as well as the well-established evidence base for lifestyle approaches are inspiring healthcare professionals and educators to look for a different approach to medicine. 

This curriculum fills a gap by providing a complete and flexible resource for educators and students alike.  It allows a quick and comprehensive integration of lifestyle medicine into existing curricula at a time when students are asking for more training in this area.