Lifestyle medicine is an evidence-based, clinical discipline that supports the adoption of healthy lifestyle behaviors to prevent, treat, and reverse chronic diseases and improve quality of life.”

The question needs to change from “How many calories should I stay under each day so I can lose ten or twenty pounds?” to “What should I eat to live a long, healthy, and joyful life?”

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The lifestyle medicine approach includes six areas of importance. I like to think of these six topics as spokes on the lifestyle medicine wheel. They include a healthy diet, regular physical activity, stress management, good sleep hygiene, minimizing substance intake, and maximizing social connections.

Keep it simple:

“Hospitalizations were six times higher and deaths 12 times higher among those with reported underlying conditions compared with those with none reported.” – CDC

The truth is that we need to have a sobering and compassionate conversation on this subject now more than ever. A virus-like COVID, unleashed in an environment where chronic diseases are commonplace, can wreak irreparable destruction. It doesn’t have to be this way.”

If there is a silver lining to COVID-19’s destructive path, my hope is that we can use this agonizing experience to spawn a healthier, more sustainable existence for ourselves and communities around the world.