Terming unhealthy lifestyle coupled with poor eating habits as a major challenge, international experts of lifestyle medicine have called for raising more awareness among the people about the necessity of healthy lifestyle and simple diet.
Dr Hans A. Diehl, founder of Lifestyle Medicine Institute Chip and Dr Margarete Ezinwa, Director of Lifestyle Medicine Global Alliance, said this while talking to Business Recorder at the sidelines of the first-ever 'Integrative Lifestyle Medicine Conference' held in a local hotel organized by the Lifestyle Medicine Training Centre (LMTC) in collaboration with the Harvard Institute of Lifestyle Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine Global Alliance.
Dr Hans A Diehl, who is Clinical Professor of Preventive Medicine School of Medicine USA, said the burden of diseases can be checked only by returning to nature and following healthy lifestyle.
He expressed grave concern over double burden of disease and called for setting priorities right to check the heavy burden of diseases.
According to him, lifestyle medicine is an increasingly crucial element to transforming disease care systems to healthcare systems. Current medical services are unable to restore health because they do not address root causes.
Diehl maintained that the enormous potential effects of health behaviour change on mortality, morbidity and health care costs provide ample motivation for the concept of lifestyle medicine.
Elaborating, he said that lifestyle medicine involves the therapeutic use of lifestyle interventions on health and quality of life, and considers not only risk factors and markers, but also a range of antecedent factors from all levels of causality.
Treatment would ultimately employ a combination of clinical (patient-centered) and public-health interventions, he added.
Examples of target patient behaviours include, but are not limited to, eliminating tobacco use, moderating alcohol consumption, increasing physical activity, improving diet, sleep, and emotional and mental well-being, he added.
He said he came here as a 'goodwill ambassador' because "I feel that I can contribute to reverse the damage by raising awareness about the healthy living."
To a query, he said the fast food chains started its operations from the West and shifted to the developing countries, so we can say it is the West which brought diseases to countries like Pakistan, therefore, experts of lifestyle medicine can contribute to reverse the damage by persuading the people to return to the nature to enjoy fruits of healthy lifestyle.
Dr Margarete Ezinwa said that effective implementation of lifestyle medicine should be a priority within the necessary changes in current healthcare systems and public health policies.
She said vegetarians are healthier as compared to meat eaters. "The people must respect their bodies by having healthy food, getting proper sleep, having regular exercise and enjoying relationship."
Ezinwa maintained that lifestyle medicine is about treating the root causes of diseases with plants not pills. "We can also avoid the adverse side effects of prescribed drugs," she said.
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