Generation Lifestyle Medicine

“I don’t want to get type-2 diabetes as my dad did.”

“I don’t want to have a stroke as my mom did.”

As a wellness coach, I hear statements like these from my clients all the time.

Each of them, in their own words, goes on to say something like:

“That’s what I’m determined to eat better, exercise more, and otherwise take great care of myself. It’s time. I need to take control of my well-being. If not now, when?”

Boom.

More and more people are becoming increasingly empowered to take control of their well-being.

Gone are the days of thinking lifestyle ailments are bad luck.

More and more people are getting hip to what the original gangster of lifestyle medicine made clear more than 2,000 years ago:

“Illnesses do not come upon us out of the blue. They are developed from small daily sins against Nature. When enough sins have accumulated, illnesses will suddenly appear.”
—Hippocrates of Kos

Lifestyle ailments don’t come out of nowhere.

They develop over time as a result of lifestyle.

And they can be undeveloped (reversed) and never developed (prevented) over time as a result of lifestyle.

That’s why so many people are jumping onto the lifestyle-medicine bandwagon.

Lifestyle medicine is the use of evidence-based approaches to nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, and holistic wellness to reverse and prevent sickness and optimize longevity and wellness.

It’s medicine, and it’s not. It’s undoubtedly potent, but it’s all about how you live outside medical buildings.

Let’s talk about the potency by considering a large, longitudinal scientific study conducted at Harvard University.

The researchers followed more than 123,000 subjects for 34 years. They took various measures of behavior from the subjects and noted which subjects died during that period and when they died.

What did they find?

“We estimate that adherence to a low-risk lifestyle could prolong life expectancy at age 50 years by 14.0 and 12.2 years in female and male US adults compared with individuals without any of the low-risk lifestyle factors. Our findings suggest that the gap in life expectancy between the United States and other developed countries could be narrowed by improving lifestyle factors.”

The salutary lifestyle they studied (refraining from smoking tobacco, moderating consumption of alcoholic drinks, eating nutritious food, exercising, and maintaining an optimal weight) was worth an average of 13.1 years of life.

Subjects who lived this salutary lifestyle had an 80 percent lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a 60 percent lower risk of dying from cancer. (1)

Boom.

And there’s even more you can do.

The comprehensive fundamentals:

1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat nutrilicious food.
3. Do moderate exercise you enjoy.
4. Move your body in other ways you enjoy.
5. Get plenty of sleep.
6. Get plenty of rest.
7. Engage in fulfilling work.
8. Engage in fulfilling relationships.

Some potentially helpful additions:

1. Spend time with nature.
2. Create and take in art.
3. Employ relaxation techniques.
4. Participate in a spiritual practice.
5. Do anything else you consider self-care.

At the end of the day, lifestyle medicine is a fancy way of saying living well.

It’s about proactively meeting most of your needs most of the time.

None of this makes you invincible, but it surely stacks the odds in your favor.

Are you ready to jump onto the bandwagon?

Are you ready to add years to your life and life to your years?

If not now, when?

(1) Impact of Healthy Lifestyle Factors on Life Expectancies in the US Population. Circulation, 2018, 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.032047.

About Jason Gootman
Jason Gootman is a Mayo Clinic Certified Wellness Coach and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach as well as a certified nutritionist and certified exercise physiologist. Jason helps people reverse and prevent type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other ailments with evidence-based approaches to nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, holistic wellness, and, most importantly, lasting behavior improvement and positive habit formation. As part of this work, Jason often helps people lose weight and keep it off, in part by helping them overcome the common challenges of yo-yo dieting and emotional eating. Jason helps people go from knowing what to do and having good intentions to consistently taking great care of themselves in ways that help them add years to their lives and life to their years.