What is lifestyle medicine?

Lifestyle Medicine (Lifestyle Medicine) is the therapeutic use of evidence-based nutritional and lifestyle interventions, such as switching to a predominantly unprocessed and plant-based diet, regular exercise, improving sleep and reducing stress. These treatments aim to preventing, treating or in many cases completely reversing lifestyle-related diseases.It equips individuals with the appropriate knowledge and life skills for effective behavior change in order to address the underlying causes of health problems.

Sustainable health and health care

The enormous increase of chronic diseases and the associated health costs, in the Netherlands and in many other countries around the world, is unsustainable. For example, type 2 diabetes is is a looming global pandemic with incalculable consequences. The Netherlands already has over 900,000 people with diabetes, and every year there are about 75,000 new diabetes patients every year (which is comparable to a full Amsterdam Arena). Lifestyle medicine is therefore essential for sustainable health and health care.

Over 80% disorders lifestyle related

The good news is that 80% or more of all disease burden in our country is tied to the treatment of conditions that have their origins in poor nutritional and lifestyle choices. Chronic diseases and conditions such as obesity, diabetes type 2, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, stroke, depression, osteoporosis and various cancers - are the most common, costly and preventable health conditions.

Why nutrition is central to lifestyle medicine

More and more people are overweight, developing diabetes or other chronic diseases. Nutrition often plays a crucial role in this. Usually the basis of these underlying these health problems is insulin resistance, which is only made aggravated by continuing to eat rapidly absorbable carbohydrates and insulin-producing foods. Similarly, obesity has much more to do with a poor diet than with lack of exercise. For example, according to researchers of British cardiologists in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. "It is time to dispel that myth: there is no exercise to counteract a poor diet."