Abstract
The year 2025 marks the 19th Anniversary of the publication of the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine (AJLM). AJLM was started with the hope and a vision to provide a forum for the exchange of evidence-based ideas and concepts in the area of lifestyle medicine. In the past 19 years, we have continued to see that initial vision progress, grow, and expand. The years 2023 and 2024 marked great progress for AJLM and we anticipate that 2025 provide both greater progress and more daunting challenges.
In 2023 and 2024, the subscription base for AJLM grew to 25,000 individuals and institutions. Within that group are 40% institutions suggesting that the actual impact on the individuals is even much greater. During 2023, AJLM evaluated 296 manuscripts which represents a 23% increase over 2022. The early data in 2024 suggests that the number of manuscripts will increase by another 30%! Importantly, these articles come from all around the world. In fact, manuscript subscriptions came from 18 countries! AJLM experienced 290,000 downloads of full text articles in 2023 which represents a 45% increase compared to 2022. Data from the first few months of 2024 which were available as I wrote this Editorial suggest that this will continue to significantly increase in 2025.
I personally was able to see the power and extent of lifestyle medicine principles and practices by giving a keynote address for a lifestyle medicine conference in 2023 China. This keynote address was observed virtually by over 2.5 million individuals! I was also happy to deliver the opening keynote address for the Japan Society of Lifestyle Medicine. Thus, there is every indication that lifestyle medicine is growing rapidly and having an enormous impact in Asia as well as elsewhere around the world.
AJLM published numerous important manuscripts and Consensus Statements such as an excellent Consensus Statement on Intensive Lifestyle Medicine, a fine summary of the health benefits of lifestyle medicine for primary care practitioners and a Consensus Statement on the use of lifestyle medicine principles in diabetes to treat and in some instances, potentially reverse it. AJLM continues to be proud to publish articles in virtually every domain of lifestyle medicine. For example, we have published a variety of excellent manuscripts in the areas of nutrition, physical activity, weight management, sleep, stress reduction and the power of positive connections. Clearly, there is great expertise and an exceptional ferment of ideas spanning multiple different domains in the area of lifestyle medicine. This is exactly what I hoped for when we founded AJLM many years ago!
While AJLM exhibits great growth and success, other publishing endeavors also supplemented the outstanding growth of lifestyle medicine. In 2024, I was proud to publish the 4th edition of my Lifestyle Medicine textbook which spans the field of lifestyle medicine. This textbook combines the expertise of 325 investigators and experts in virtually every area of lifestyle medicine. In addition, my organization continues to coordinate the Lifestyle Medicine Series which is a series of smaller paperback books designed to introduce lifestyle medicine to individuals early in their training or to those people who have a specific interest in a particular area of lifestyle medicine. In 2023 and 2024, we published five more books in the Lifestyle Medicine Series including books on lifestyle nutrition, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and pre-diabetes, behavioral counseling, psychiatry and mental health. This brought the total of books in the Lifestyle Medicine Series to 11 volumes. In 2025, we anticipate publishing four more books in this series including ones on geriatrics, family practice, brain health and health equity. To generate these books, we have been able to draw on a pool of exceptional editors who are often members of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM).
AJLM is proud to be the official journal of the ACLM. ACLM has continued to grow at a phenomenal pace! As of early 2024, ACLM had over 11,000 members. ACLM conducted a sold out national conference in 2023 with over 2000 attendees and another 1000 virtual participants. In 2024, the sold out conference expanded to 2500. AJLM was proud to congratulate ACLM on its 20th Anniversary in the year 2024 and publish an outstanding summary of ACLM accomplishments written by its Executive Director, Susan Benigas. Also in 2024, AJLM was pleased to publish for the 9th time an issue largely devoted to the proceedings of the preceding national conference of ACLM.
Other initiatives around the world continued to demonstrate and amplify the power of lifestyle medicine modalities to lower the risk of chronic disease. The White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health underscored the Federal government’s emphasis on these issues and resulted in numerous commitments from both public and private organizations which total over 8 billion dollars in value. The World Health Organization continued its fine work in the area of combating non-communicable diseases. WHO has stated that over 71% of all annual mortality comes from NCDs. Lifestyle medicine modalities play a prominent role in this entire NCD initiative.
While great progress has been made on many fronts in the area of lifestyle medicine, enormous challenges remain. While ACLM has done a magnificent job in helping to educate the physician community, it remains a source of deep chagrin for me that only 17% of medical schools have designated courses in nutrition and only 9% have designated offerings in physical activity! We simply need to do better!
As we look forward to 2026 and the 20th Anniversary of the inaugural issue of the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, I am proud to reflect on the progress we have made and I am determined to meet the challenges that lie in front of us to bring the key, evidence-based modalities of lifestyle medicine not only to the medical community but also to the public at large. As the poet Robert Frost wrote “we have miles to go before we sleep.”
James M. Rippe, MD Editor in Chief, AJLM
Professor of Medicine
UMass Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA
Founder and Director Rippe Lifestyle Institute Shrewsbury, MA