Harvard doctors prescribe 'lifestyle medicine' to treat disorders
The most effective cure to treat any lifestyle disorder be it obesity, diabetes or hypertension is to make healthy changes in your lifestyle itself, say Harvard experts Edward Phillips and Stephan Esser
Tweet-- Hypertension, diabetes, obesity and a host of cardiovascular and associated metabolic diseases are growing concerns today. And they all are a result of following unhealthy lifestyles, according to Edward Phillips and Stephan Esser, experts from the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine, founded by the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and the Harvard Medical School.
"How did diseases, which were hardly known 200 years ago, come to afflict nearly every family?
Science tells us that human genetics have not significantly changed over the last 200 years, but our 'lifestyles' have," they write in an article published in the January 2010 issue of Complete Wellbeing magazine.
In the article the doctor duo discusses some common disorders and how they are interconnected-one leading to the other. They explain how all of this relates to our lifestyle choices.
"Studies show that being overweight increases your risk of Type 2 Diabetes by 300 per cent and being obese increases your chance by 900 per cent. When it comes to heart disease, liver disease and certain cancers, the story is similar. The poorer our lifestyle habits, the more belly fat we store and the greater our risk of disease, disability and untimely death," write the doctors in the article.
The way to minimise risk and treat these diseases is to have a thorough look at our lifestyles. "Our personal choices are powerful 'medicine', they write further.
Lifestyle medicine is emerging as a widely accepted and powerful branch of medicine today. In fact, the entire Institute of Lifestyle Medicine is built around this concept.
"The best part about lifestyle medicine is that anyone can apply it to his/her life, anytime and anywhere," they write.
Read the entire article by the Harvard experts, in the January 2010 issue of Complete Wellbeing magazinne, out on stands now! Or visit http://completewellbeing.com
Notes to Editor
Excerpt from the article on Lifestyle medicine in January 2010 issue of Complete Wellbeing magazine:
The medicine
The threat is the same for all of the metabolic and inflammatory diseases we mentioned: Type 2 Diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, strokes, obesity and all its related complications. Although their pathology is slightly different, they all respond to what we call 'lifestyle medicine'. A healthy lifestyle can prevent, reverse or at the least dramatically improve all of these illnesses.
Health: a way of life
So what exactly is a "healthy lifestyle"? We believe a healthy lifestyle is a rational, moderate pattern of personal behaviours that promote health and well-being. It is not defined by extremes or expense, but rather by synchrony and purpose.