Lifestyle Medicine Interventions for Personal and Planetary Health: The Urgent Need for Action

• Published in: American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine
• Main Authors: Pathak, Neha, Pollard, Kathryn J., McKinney, Amanda
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 2022
• Subjects: Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health; Health Policy; Medicine (miscellaneous); Ocean acidification
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/15598276221090887; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/15598276221090887; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/15598276221090887

The deterioration of planetary health—from threats such as climate change, environmental pollution, biodiversity loss, and ocean acidification—are a growing hazard to the foundation of health and the “healthspan.” For those with chronic conditions—a large and growing subset of the global population—the health dangers are even greater. Climate change is a threat to the very pillars of lifestyle medicine that we rely on to prevent and manage chronic disease. Already, the planetary crisis is limiting our ability to prescribe healthy nutrition, safe outdoor physical activity, stress management strategies, social connection, restorative sleep, and toxic substance avoidance. In this article, we discuss the proceedings of our workshop at the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) annual conference LM2021, “Lifestyle Medicine for Personal and Planetary Health.” We examine how lifestyle medicine (LM) interventions are a prescription for individual, community, and planetary health. Our prescriptions work to not only restore the health of individuals and families, but also to bolster health equity while allowing us to mitigate and adapt to the health impacts of the planetary crises.