Indicators 2023: Research highlights six pillars of lifestyle medicine

Jul. 23—WILKES-BARRE — Jill Avery-Stoss, COO of The Institute, this week confirmed that the organization's Health and Health Care Task Force has guided a study exploring lifestyle medicine and its value in Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Avery-Stoss said lifestyle medicine is a specialty approach to care that uses lifestyle interventions to help treat chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

"There are six pillars of lifestyle medicine," Avery-Stoss said. "They include healthy eating, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and positive social connections."

Avery-Stoss said this approach to health care is likely to be useful in NEPA, given the high burden of chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease in the region.

She said the area is also challenged by the behaviors that lifestyle medicine attempts to address, including higher rates of cigarette smoking and a larger share of people with no leisure time physical activity compared to statewide statistics.

"It is important to remember that while each aspect of lifestyle medicine can be promoted to some extent by increasing knowledge or encouraging patients to make healthier choices, there are external constraints," Avery-Stoss said. "It is not always easy to access or afford healthy food, for example, and quality sleep is out of reach for many."

Furthermore, Avery-Stoss said older adults are at a much greater risk of social isolation and lack of physical activity than their younger counterparts.

Alcohol abuse is most prevalent among young adults and men. Insufficient sleep is reported most often by single parents and nonwhite and Hispanic individuals.

Avery-Stoss said lifestyle medicine practice is most effective when the specific lifestyle changes promoted align with patients' chronic diagnoses as well as their socioeconomic characteristics.

Research points to community and social connection as important aspects of lifestyle medicine, and they are affected by the built environment. Some programs expand access to outdoor recreation, for instance, so improvements to parks, trails, and greenways can encourage physical activity.

"Social connection among older adults is a complex issue also impacted by built environment," added Avery-Stoss. "They may struggle to access support programs, senior centers, and even transportation. That's why efforts to serve older individuals — and all people — should be planned carefully and with such challenges in mind."

Research also emphasizes the importance of teaching children and young adults about the benefits of following the six pillars of lifestyle medicine.

"Doing so promotes brain development in childhood and overall health later in life," Avery-Stoss said. "Healthy diet, plenty of sleep, daily exercise, and social engagement are especially beneficial for young people.

Avery-Stoss said if younger people implement the six pillars of lifestyle medicine into their lives, they are likelier to grow up to be healthy adults and reduce the overall cost of health care in the United States.

"Smoking, for instance, has decreased over the past two decades in part because younger people did not develop the habit," Avery-Stoss said. "Education played a key role in raising awareness about the dangers of smoking."

Avery-Stoss said informing young people about lifestyle medicine and helping them to implement its six pillars into their daily lives have the potential to decrease chronic disease in the United States by 80%.

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Reach Bill O'Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.