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What is lifestyle medicine?

Lifestyle medicine is a medical speciality that uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions as a primary approach to preventing, treating, and, in some cases, reversing chronic disease. It is grounded in six interconnected pillars: nutrition, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and positive social connection. Rather than focusing solely on symptom control, lifestyle medicine supports whole-person care and long-term health restoration.

Lifestyle medicine aligns naturally with the core values of primary care: prevention, continuity, and person-centred care. It provides clinicians with structured, evidence-based tools that can be applied incrementally; through brief lifestyle conversations, social prescribing, group consultations, and multidisciplinary collaboration.

Evidence continues to grow across a wide range of conditions. Research into diet, lifestyle, and brain health, for example, shows that dietary patterns rich in whole, plant foods are associated with better cognitive function and a reduced risk of dementia. Improvements in cardiometabolic health, vascular function, and inflammation help explain why lifestyle interventions often have benefits that cut across multiple disease states encountered daily in general practice.

One of the strengths of lifestyle medicine is its adaptability. It can be integrated into existing care pathways and tailored to local populations and resources. Case-based learning and GP-led discussions are particularly effective in translating evidence into realistic clinical models that work within time-pressured settings.

Plant-Based Health Professionals UK supports healthcare professionals through education, advocacy, and evidence-based resources focused on whole-food, plant-predominant nutrition and lifestyle medicine. While recognising the extraordinary advances of conventional medicine, PBHP UK highlights the need to rebalance healthcare toward prevention and long-term health resilience – for patients, clinicians, and communities.

At the Primary Care Show, PBHP UK will explore how lifestyle medicine can be implemented in everyday clinical practice, alongside a GP-led case discussion demonstrating how these principles are already being applied in real-world primary care settings.

As lifestyle medicine becomes increasingly visible in healthcare systems worldwide, a critical question follows: how do we ensure consistency, credibility, and high standards of clinical practice? For lifestyle medicine to be safely and effectively embedded into primary care, it must be underpinned by shared competencies and robust professional standards. Certification plays a central role in making this possible.

Lifestyle medicine addresses the root causes of today’s most prevalent chronic diseases using structured, therapeutic lifestyle change. As interest in this approach grows, so too does the need for clarity; both for clinicians and for healthcare systems. Without agreed standards, lifestyle medicine risks being interpreted inconsistently or applied without sufficient training.

Standardisation helps ensure that clinicians practising lifestyle medicine are working from the same evidence base, applying interventions safely, ethically, and effectively. It also provides reassurance to employers, regulators, and patients that lifestyle medicine is a credible, evidence-based medical specialty.

The International Board of Lifestyle Medicine (IBLM) is the global peak certification body for lifestyle medicine. It sets and maintains rigorous standards for the assessment and credentialing of physicians and doctorate- or masters-level health professionals practising evidence-based lifestyle medicine worldwide.

Since its establishment in 2017, more than 8,000 clinicians across 92 countries have achieved IBLM certification. Certification as an IBLM Diplomate signifies demonstrated competence in the principles and clinical application of lifestyle medicine and distinguishes practitioners who have met internationally recognised standards.

For primary care, certification matters. As healthcare systems shift from a reactive “sick-care” model toward prevention and health restoration, clinicians need access to high-quality training pathways that are aligned with real-world practice. Lifestyle medicine certification supports workforce development by equipping clinicians with the knowledge and skills required to integrate lifestyle-based interventions alongside conventional care.

IBLM certification is grounded in the six pillars of lifestyle medicine: nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and social connection. This ensures a whole-person, evidence-based approach to chronic disease prevention and management.

IBLM is committed to the highest scientific standards and to continual innovation, supporting lifestyle medicine as a meaningful response to the global epidemic of non-communicable disease. By providing a shared framework for assessment and credentialing, IBLM helps ensure that lifestyle medicine is scalable, credible, and fit for integration into healthcare systems worldwide.

At the Primary Care Show, IBLM will be represented alongside UK partners to highlight how certification supports clinicians, strengthens professional standards, and underpins the safe and effective growth of lifestyle medicine within primary care and beyond.