High quality Lifestyle Medicine education is essential to support patients to lead healthier lives, with more options than medications or surgery and more emphasis on what really matters to them.
It has the potential to protect the NHS and its workforce, reduce the impact of pandemics, turn the tide of long-term chronic conditions and address health inequalities.
Lifestyle Medicine education is at the core of our work.
There is currently a huge need and demand for Lifestyle Medicine education for the members of the public and clinicians of all backgrounds.
Studies show:
• <8% of clinicians surveyed discuss stress or physical exercise with their patients
• >50% of GPs surveyed didn’t know the UK recommended activity guidance
• >90% of medical students and doctors agreed nutrition is important and they should play a key role but when dietary counselling occurred, it was of poor quality
• 36% of clinicians surveyed were not aware of any evidence-based lifestyle guidelines for cancer survivors.
In most Western countries, care nurses perform the majority of long-term disease reviews, and health coaches and social prescribing link workers are playing an increasingly larger role in the NHS.
