Comprehensive primary care through lifestyle medicine

The family medicine residency at Marshall University offers trainees the opportunity to participate in a targeted track dedicated to lifestyle medicine, a growing trend in medical residency education and the practice of primary care. 

Lifestyle medicine is a medical specialty that uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions as a primary modality to treat chronic conditions including, but not limited to, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.  Lifestyle medicine certified clinicians are trained to apply evidence-based, whole-person, prescriptive lifestyle change to treat and, when used intensively, often reverse such conditions. Applying the six pillars of lifestyle medicine—a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances and positive social connections—also provides effective prevention for these conditions.

 While evidence shows lifestyle to be a critical factor in chronic disease, to date there have been inadequate levels of lifestyle-related training in medical and other related schools to help patients make healthy lifestyle changes.