Abstract
In his second edition of the book Lifestyle Medicine, James Rippe, MD, has thoroughly catalogued the role of lifestyle in the modern practice of medicine, including both disease treatment and health promotion. This comprehensive 1588-page volume is divided into 23 sections, each separately coordinated and edited. Each section has between 3 and 10 chapters, and each chapter has between 1 and 6 authors. In total, 275 authors contributed their subject expertise, ensuring a scientific breadth and perspective that is completely unmatched in the field of lifestyle medicine. Overall, this book is extremely well organized, with each chapter beginning with a content overview, ending with a conclusion or summary, and including a strong set of references documenting the science behind the content. Appropriate tables and figures, including both graphs and pictorial illustrations, are inserted throughout the text.
Looking into the content of Lifestyle Medicine in more detail, the various sections can be grouped based on their subject matter and perspective. There are 4 sections devoted to lifestyle medicine modalities, including sections on nutrition, physical activity, behavioral psychology, and exercise psychology. There is also a separate section on obesity and weight management. Seven of the sections are organ or system related. These include the role of lifestyle medicine in cardiovascular disease, endocrinology, cancer, infectious disease, pulmonary medicine, orthopedics, and dermatology. Another 7 sections look at lifestyle medicine from the perspective of a particular medical specialty or focus area that is nonorgan based. These include sections on obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, family medicine, rehabilitation, and geriatrics, as well as a segment that focuses on women’s health and another that focuses on men’s health. The final 4 sections are components of a typical preventive medicine approach, including epidemiology, health promotion, injury prevention, and public policy.
Since the first edition of Lifestyle Medicine was published in 1999, the field of lifestyle medicine has grown and solidified. There is now a lifestyle medicine journal, a specialty society, and a growing set of conferences and other educational resources cataloguing lifestyle medicine science, opportunities, and challenges. This growth has been driven by multiple factors including the expanding chronic disease epidemic, rising health care costs, patient dissatisfaction with the status quo, and, most important, an expanding body of evidence that treating lifestyle is frequently the first and best approach to disease treatment and prevention. In this second edition, Dr Rippe boldly takes on the challenge of summarizing this growth and the current evidence for lifestyle medicine in one comprehensive text.
There are multiple reasons this endeavor is significant. First, because the evidence for lifestyle medicine comes from a spectrum of fields and disciplines, a clear summary of the lifestyle medicine science does not occur naturally. This text bridges that gap. Second, the field of lifestyle medicine challenges many traditional health care delivery approaches and institutions. If practices are going to shift away from the current heavy reliance on pharmaceuticals and medical devices, the evidence for this must be meticulously summarized. This text achieves that. Third, the growth in lifestyle medicine has come from many sectors, some of which do not have traditional evidence-based foundations. This volume documents that, and even though there may be significant value in nontraditional components, the field of lifestyle medicine is firmly rooted in evidence-based methods that can be accepted and embraced by even those most particular with their science. And finally, although the typical health care practitioner recognizes the value of lifestyle medicine in their field, it is not incorporated into their practice at the level the evidence supports. Perhaps most important, this book encourages individual practitioners toward better health care delivery.
Although some lifestyle medicine practitioners might ask for a stronger review of certain lifestyle medicine tools such as the role of plant-based nutrition, or the place for sleep, rest, and stress reduction in disease treatment and prevention, overall this text is a massive contribution to the field of lifestyle medicine. There is nothing else that even comes close to documenting and summarizing the evidence behind lifestyle medicine. Because of that, this volume should be in the libraries of every policy maker and health care provider who is serious about offering lifestyle medicine as a core tool for his or her patients and communities.