Abstract
‘I wrote about “dreams, passion, evidence, and hard work,” which would be necessary for lifestyle medicine to continue to grow and thrive.’
With this issue of the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine (AJLM), we are pleased to present our third annual entire issue devoted to the Proceedings of the National Meeting of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM). The most recent meeting of ACLM was held from November 1 to 5, 2015, in Nashville, Tennessee.
Last year, in my editorial, which opened the second annual issue of AJLM devoted to the ACLM National Conference, I wrote about “dreams, passion, evidence, and hard work,” which would be necessary for lifestyle medicine to continue to grow and thrive. Based on what I saw at the 2015 meeting of the ACLM, I am pleased to report that there is both robust growth and strong evolution in the lifestyle medicine movement. The “dreams, passion, evidence, and hard work” that I discussed in last year’s editorial are fast becoming realities based on the outstanding efforts of many individuals.
As in previous years, the current issue of AJLM opens with an Expert Panel Discussion drawn on the diverse background and expertise of a number of individuals who are recognized leaders and experts in the field of lifestyle medicine. I had the pleasure of serving as moderator of this opening panel discussion at the ACLM meeting. I challenged the expert panelists to expound to 2 general questions related to lifestyle medicine:
Describe what transformation from the current disease care system to a health care system looks like in the context of lifestyle medicine.
Describe what population health management means to you and what role does lifestyle medicine play in population health management.
You will see from the diverse and thought-provoking answers from the experts that while each approached these questions somewhat differently, all are convinced that transformation has begun and will continue to move forward at an ever-quickening pace. Each panelist defined population health in a slightly different way but all concluded that efforts to help individuals make positive decisions in their daily habits and actions would ultimately translate into larger population-based initiatives and truly change the way we think about health care in the United States.
I concluded the panel discussion by asking each panelist to briefly describe a novel program that illustrated the role of either lifestyle medicine in health care transformation or population health. Again, there were diverse answers ranging from direct primary care to Internet-based solutions, but all panelists provided specific examples of how lifestyle medicine was leading the way to transform our health care system.
The articles that make up the bulk of this issue of AJLM largely focus on specific techniques and approaches to assist in the transformation of lifestyle medicine. Drs Beth Frates and Jonathan Bonnet provide a specific roadmap of how to collaborate with patients to foster therapeutic lifestyle change. Dr Caldwell Esselstyn documents the pioneering work that he and others have accomplished to demonstrate how lifestyle medicine practices can reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease and how this work is beginning to influence the practice of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic and elsewhere. These efforts are particularly heartwarming to me as a cardiologist since it was in the area of cardiovascular disease that I first became interested in the benefits of lifestyle medicine. Dan Buettner and Sam Skemp summarize their important work on “Blue Zones” documenting the specific habits and practices that lead to longevity in cultures around the world. Dr Mark Faries reminds us of the importance of delving beyond simply lecturing patients to make changes in their lives to offering techniques and also a framework for bridging the intention-behavior gap in the area of positive lifestyle measures. Finally, Dr Shilpa Saxena provides a thorough review of the emerging trend of lifestyle-based group visits documenting both the rationale behind this emerging movement as well as the efficacy of such encounters to help individuals learn from each other as well as health care providers in the area of lifestyle medicine.
Also included in this issue are interviews conducted by Dr Beth Frates with the Award Winners from the ACLM conference. These interviews are both revealing and inspiring. Dr John Kelly, who is the founder of ACLM, discusses how he continues to practice its principles in his daily work. Dr Dean Ornish, who has provided important research for the underpinnings of lifestyle medicine, discusses the growth and gradual acceptance of his lifestyle-based programs by the insurance industry.
As the lifestyle medicine movement continues to focus on practical strategies to implement lifestyle medicine practices, we at AJLM continue to evolve to meet the specific needs of lifestyle medicine practitioners around the world. With this in mind, in this issue we are inaugurating 2 new columns. Dr Cindy Geyer has joined the AJLM Editorial Board in the area of “Case Studies in Lifestyle Medicine.” In this issue, she inaugurates these columns with a case study from her own practice. Dr Jonathan Bonnet has joined the AJLM Editorial Board in the area of the “Business of Lifestyle Medicine” and offers his first column in this issue. In the next issue of AJLM, we will launch a third column edited by Dr Beth Frates on “Education in Lifestyle Medicine.” With these 3 new columns, we hope and believe we have addressed 3 of the most pressing practical issues for lifestyle medicine practitioners.
I would be remiss if I did not offer one final word of praise. Dr Beth Frates has done a magnificent job of assembling the current issue of AJLM and serving as its Guest Editor. Editing a journal is both a pleasure and a lot of hard work. Beth has done an exemplary job in putting together what we believe is an outstanding and user-friendly issue of AJLM.
Nine years ago when we founded the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine we were motivated by the strong belief that there was a need for an academic, evidence-based platform for health care professionals to share ideas about how to help people make positive lifestyle decisions. We also felt that the large body of evidence that supported this effort needed one forum where evidence from diverse disciplines could be brought together. Now, 9 years later, I am pleased to report that both the journal and the lifestyle medicine movement continue to experience robust growth and continued positive evolution.
On a personal note, some years ago, I wrote a book titled High Performance Health. 1 This book was motivated by the simple premise that most people view good health simply as the absence of a life-threatening chronic disease. I argued that it was up to us in the health care professions to help people understand that good health was much more than the absence of a chronic disease. Indeed, it is the platform for achieving the life that all of us want and deserve.
At the time that I wrote High Performance Health, it was based on both a vision and a dream. Now, 9 years later, I am thrilled that what I dreamed about many years ago with the first edition of my textbook Lifestyle Medicine 2 is now well on its way to becoming a reality. This year, my research team will continue to focus on specific aspects of lifestyle medicine with the publication of my next book, Nutrition in Lifestyle Medicine, 3 which will expand on some of the themes we introduced in the second edition of my Lifestyle Medicine textbook, 4 with an in-depth exploration of key topics in nutrition and health. The continued growth and positive evolution of the lifestyle medicine movement is both deeply gratifying to me personally and also the result of the enormous commitment and effort of an ever-growing group of health care professionals who truly embody the concepts of “dreams, passion, evidence, and hard work.”