As chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer are on the rise, a growing number of health care professionals are turning to powerful evidence-based approaches like lifestyle medicine.

This approach to health care helps people stay healthy and avoid long-term disease by making better choices in their everyday lives. It’s like giving your body the tools it needs to heal itself. 

There are six pillars of lifestyle medicine that are key to your everyday life:

1. Fitness: Aim to engage in regular and consistent physical activity. Physical activity decreases the risk of all types of chronic disease from diabetes to improving quality of life for cancer patients. By moving more, you can improve your quality of life and longevity.
2. Sleep: Strive for adequate sleep to allow the body to rest and recover (i.e., diabetes risk is lowest at 7-8 hours of sleep).
3. Nutrition: Prioritize eating a predominantly whole food, plant-based diet, characterized by nutrient-dense, minimally processed food with low density (i.e., fruit, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds).
4. Social connections: Strengthening and maintaining relationships to bring meaning and purpose to life. Connections are an antidote to loneliness which shortens lifespan. Consider connecting to self, nature, and others to combat social isolation.
5. Stress management: Learn to manage stress through techniques like mindfulness / meditation and replace stress responses with positive habits.
6. Substance use reduction: Reduce or eliminate consumption of substances such as alcohol that increase risk for chronic diseases, mental health disorders, and overall mortality.

Maintaining healthy habits in each of these areas have been shown to decrease future chronic illnesses, improving well-being and living longer. These pillars are based on medical studies and categorized by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM), a medical specialty that focuses on preventing and reversing chronic conditions in nearly every organ in your body. 

Lifestyle medicine helps to restore the body’s natural balance by addressing the root causes of disease. Most chronic conditions are both caused by and can be improved through the six pillars. In fact, up to 80% of chronic diseases can be prevented through lifestyle changes, according to ACLM. 

These include: 

• Diabetes (type 2)
• Pre-diabetes
• Obesity
• Cancers (breast, colorectal, pancreatic) 
• Depression 
• Chronic respiratory diseases
• Hypertension 
• Heart disease

Lifestyle medicine approaches include nutrition, otherwise known as Food Is Medicine. Food Is Medicine programs incorporate cooking and nutrition education, access to nutritious and healthy food, and support for adopting healthy eating habits into patients’ everyday lives. Programs like these enhance overall well-being while preventing, managing, and treating chronic disease. Blue Cross NC is committed to improving access to nutritional counseling and diabetes education, helping members use their benefits to support healthier lifestyles and manage diabetes through self-management and support services.

By making small, consistent changes in these areas, you can drastically improve your health – and in many cases reduce / eliminate the need for medications. 

1. Eat more whole food, plant-based foods: Focus on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, and seeds. Try to reduce processed foods and sugary drinks. A whole food / plant predominant diet addresses the root cause of medical conditions. 
2. Move your body regularly: Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate activity most days – like walking, biking, or dancing. Sitting is the new smoking habit! Strive weekly to do both aerobic exercise (75-150 minutes per week) and resistance training (8-10 major muscle groups, 2-3 times a week). Some exercise is better than none at all! 
3. Get quality sleep: Stick to a regular sleep schedule and aim for 7-9 hours of restful sleep each night. Insufficient sleep syndrome leads to major chronic diseases such as obesity, hypertension, depression, risk for type 2 diabetes.
4. Manage stress in healthy ways: Practice deep breathing, mindfulness, journaling, or spend time in nature to unwind.
5. Build strong social connections: Stay in touch with friends and family, join a group, or volunteer – positive relationships boost mental and physical health. 

Lifestyle medicine gives you the power to take charge of your health. Instead of just treating symptoms, it helps you make smart choices – like eating better, moving more, and managing stress – that can stop or even reverse disease. You have more control over your health than you think!