Are you living by the Six Pillars of Health?

In America, we’re all too familiar with curative care – “curing an existing illness or injury to restore a person to their pre-illness state.” 

But diseases can be treated and reversed with lifestyle strategies. Preventative care is an everyday mission, something we can refer to as “Lifestyle Medicine”.

The American College of Lifestyle Medicine describes it as “an evidence-based medical speciality that applies therapeutic lifestyle interventions to treat, reverse, and prevent chronic conditions like cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes and obesity”.

These “Six Pillars” are as follows:

Optimal Nutrition: A diet focused on whole foods: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds.

Physical Activity: Regular physical activity recommendation of 150 minutes of aerobic and muscle-strengthening activity per week.

Stress Management: Chronic stress exacerbates health issues. Managing stress is considered critical for overall health and treatment of chronic diseases. This can involve exercise, listening to calming music, journaling, and more.

Meaningful Social Connections: Meaningful social interactions are critical for happiness, longevity and treatment of chronic diseases. Having a sense of purpose positively impacts our physical and mental health. 

Restorative Sleep: While poor sleep hygiene is associated with most causes of premature death and disability, quality sleep supports chronic disease treatment and overall well-being. Recommendation is for 7-9 hours of quality sleep a night.

Avoidance of Risky Substances: The use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs negatively impact our mental and physical well being and increase risks of death and chronic diseases.

Ultimately, Lifestyle Medicine is compelling because it’s a powerful trifecta: it’s scientific (evidence-based), focuses on the individual (patient-centric), and delivers high-quality cost-effective care through a team based approach. 

At Heddy + Hinton, we’re driven by holistic approaches and preventative skincare.

Find out more about  lifestyle medicine at lifestylemedicine.org