Blue Zones and American College of Lifestyle Medicine launch new Blue Zones® Certification for Physicians and Health Professionals

Clinicians who earn the certification will stand out of their communities for having the abilities and data to use evidence-based way of life interventions and Blue Zones’ roadmap to dwelling higher, longer lives.

ST. LOUIS, Nov. 10, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Blue Zones and the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) in the present day launched the “Blue Zones Certification Course for Physicians and Health Professionals.” The new certification acknowledges clinicians with the data and instruments to advertise longevity, well-being, and well being fairness—each within the examination room and of their communities.

The certification integrates Blue Zones’ evidence-based roadmap to dwelling higher and longer, rooted of their identification of and analysis from the world’s longest-lived and happiest cultures—the blue zones regions—with ACLM’s experience in therapeutic way of life interventions. Lifestyle medication is a medical specialty that makes use of optimum diet, common bodily exercise, restorative sleep, stress administration, connectedness, and the avoidance of dangerous substances to deal with, reverse, and stop persistent illnesses, similar to cardiovascular illnesses, kind 2 diabetes, and weight problems.

The on-line course is organized into modules that start by introducing individuals to the blue zones areas and the Power 9^® ideas—the life-style habits recognized by Blue Zones founder Dan Buettner and his analysis staff as being shared by the world’s longest-lived folks. Subsequent modules discover Blue Zones’ environment-first strategy to well being and longevity, making use of Blue Zones ideas in communities, organizations, and into affected person care. The ultimate two modules problem individuals to personally follow Blue Zones way of life habits, function changemakers, and assist drive group transformation.

The creation of the “Blue Zones-Certified Physician” and “Blue Zones-Certified Health Professional” designations is a major milestone within the global impact partnership shaped final yr by ACLM and Blue Zones to handle the unsustainable burden of persistent illness.

Ben Leedle, CEO of Blue Zones and Co-founder of Blue Zones Project^®, mentioned: “Blue Zones has proven that you can improve population health outside clinic walls by redesigning the places and systems in which people spend the most time. Lifestyle medicine has proven that evidence-based lifestyle interventions—like nutrition, movement, sleep, and stress management—can prevent, treat, and even reverse chronic diseases. This certification bridges our environment-first approach with medicine. When you converge ‘care of the patient’ with ‘health of the public,’ you don’t just treat or reverse disease, you can prevent it at scale.”

To grow to be a “Blue Zones-Certified Physician” or “Blue Zones-Certified Health Professional,” clinicians should first earn way of life medication board certification. In the U.S., physicians are licensed by the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine (ABLM) whereas ACLM certifies eligible well being professionals. Outside the U.S., the International Board of Lifestyle Medicine (IBLM) is the certification physique for physicians and eligible well being professionals.

Clinicians who obtain Blue Zones certification not solely deepen their data and expertise but additionally profit from Blue Zones’ world model recognition. Patients can really feel assured understanding they’re receiving care rooted within the Blue Zones ideas, whereas clinicians achieve visibility for his or her Blue Zones Certification by ACLM’s searchable database of licensed way of life medication clinicians. Clinicians can even apply Blue Zones ideas in their very own lives to help their well-being and resilience.

“Clinicians who achieve Blue Zones Certification will stand out in their communities as leaders in the movement to transform healthcare from a system of ‘sick care’ to one of true health restoration,” mentioned ACLM President Padmaja Patel, MD, DipABLM, FACLM, CPE. “This certification affirms their commitment to evidence-based, lifestyle-first approaches, while also providing them with the visibility, credibility, and brand recognition that helps strengthen the trust of patients, colleagues, and health systems alike.”

Since the life-style medication certification examination was first provided in 2017, the variety of licensed physicians and health professionals has grown quickly to greater than 8,000 worldwide. On common, greater than 900 extra clinicians are licensed annually. Growth in recent times has accelerated even additional to almost 3 times sooner between 2023 and 2025, underscoring the speedy adoption of way of life medication throughout the healthcare panorama. A file 1,728 people registered for the 2025 examination. The 2026 examination will probably be provided Nov. 21 to Dec. 6.

“The growth of lifestyle medicine has been nothing short of extraordinary, and the introduction of Blue Zones Certification builds on that momentum,” mentioned Blue Zones Certification Course Lead Faculty Michelle Tollefson, MD, DipABLM, FACLM, FACOG. “This new certification pathway gives clinicians practical tools to extend their impact well beyond the exam room—into families, workplaces, and communities—while reinforcing the critical role of lifestyle interventions in treating, reversing, and preventing chronic disease.”

The Blue Zones–ACLM Fellows Program is at present in improvement and can supply deeper and extra specialised coaching in way of life medication ideas aligned with the Blue Zones philosophy and analysis.

About ACLM^®
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) is the nation’s medical skilled society advancing the sector of way of life medication as the muse of a redesigned, value-based and equitable healthcare supply system, important to attaining the Quintuple Aim and whole-person well being. ACLM represents, advocates for, trains, certifies, and equips its members to determine and eradicate the foundation reason behind persistent illness by optimizing modifiable danger elements. ACLM is filling the gaping void of way of life medication in medical schooling, offering greater than 1.2 million hours of way of life medication schooling to physicians and different well being professionals since 2004, whereas additionally advancing analysis, scientific follow and reimbursement methods.

About Blue Zones^®
Blue Zones employs evidence-based methods to assist folks dwell higher, longer. The firm’s work is rooted in explorations and analysis carried out by founder and National Geographic Fellow Dan Buettner in blue zones areas all over the world, the place folks dwell terribly lengthy and/or pleased lives. The authentic analysis and findings have been launched in Buettner’s bestselling books The Blue Zones Solution, The Blue Zones of Happiness, The Blue Zones, Thrive, and Blue Zones Kitchen, Blue Zones Challenge—all revealed by National Geographic books. A success docuseries, Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones, was launched on Netflix in 2023. Using authentic Blue Zones analysis, Blue Zones works with cities and counties to make wholesome decisions simpler by everlasting and semi-permanent modifications to our human-made environment. Participating communities have skilled double-digit drops in weight problems and tobacco use and have saved hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in healthcare prices.

SOURCE American College of Lifestyle Medicine