Medical societies unite at Lifestyle Medicine Conference

Key takeaways:

• The presidential panel on the Lifestyle Medicine Conference signifies a cultural shift in drugs.
• The panelists mentioned life-style drugs’s function in stopping continual illness and enhancing psychological well being.

DALLAS — Leaders of a number of medical organizations got here collectively on the American College of Lifestyle of Medicine’s annual convention to focus on the significance of integrating life-style drugs throughout all of well being care.

Padmaja Patel, MD, DipABLM, FACLM, CPE, president of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM), moderated the presidential panel dialogue. The panelists included:

• Bobby Mukkamala, MD, DipABLM, president of the AMA;
• Steven J. Fleischman, MD, MBA, FACOG, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG);
• Lydia C. Alexander, MD, MFOMA, DipABOM, DipABLM, instant previous president of the Obesity Medicine Association (OMA);
• Ramaswamy Viswanathan, MD, DrMedSc, instant previous president of the American Psychiatric Association (APA); and
• Carrie A. Jaworski, MD, FAAFP, FACSM, president of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).

“This is a historic moment. And this conversation is about more than aligning societies,” Patel mentioned. “It’s about recognizing the ubiquity of lifestyle medicine as a foundational science and clinical discipline that transcends specialties.”

AMA

The United States spends about $5 trillion on well being care annually, drastically greater than different high-income international locations — and twice as a lot because the second-highest spending nation, based on Mukkamala. Yet the U.S. has worse well being care outcomes in lots of areas, like maternal-feal drugs. Lifestyle drugs can flip the script, Mukkamala, who’s board-certified in life-style drugs, mentioned.

“I’m not one who will go to a microphone and make a speech about something that I haven’t proven by my own activity,” he mentioned.

According to a assessment printed in American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, wholesome life-style practices, like upkeep of a wholesome BMI, may stop 80% of all coronary heart illness and over 91% of all diabetes in girls.

However, Mukkamala identified that compensation is a serious barrier to implementing life-style drugs in medical apply. Physicians, he mentioned, obtain extra compensation for seeing three sufferers in half-hour utilizing conventional approaches vs. one affected person in half-hour utilizing a way of life drugs strategy.

“That is a system that doesn’t support the passion of everybody in this room,” Mukkamala mentioned.

As AMA president, Mukkamala mentioned his aim over the subsequent 7 months is to speak to lawmakers concerning the want for higher cost fashions that adequately reimburse physicians to combine life-style drugs.

ACOG

Fleischman mentioned the affect life-style drugs can have on girls’s well being.

Women with weight problems are “two to three times more likely to suffer from infertility,” and about “80% of women with PCOS are overweight or obese,” he mentioned. Elevated insulin ranges related to weight problems may trigger fertility and being pregnant issues. Endometrial most cancers, which has been tied to weight problems, “is at an all-time high,” Fleischman mentioned.

Most of those points, he added, “can be dealt with through lifestyle changes.”

“I don’t fault people for not discussing it. It’s not taught in medical school. It’s not taught in residency training programs. Sometimes, when you don’t know what to do, it’s easier not to do anything,” Fleischman mentioned. “I’m hopeful that my experience here and the relationships I’ve built with ACLM leadership and the conversations we’ve had will result in us partnering together as an organization to really lift up education for our members so that we can serve our patients better.”

OMA

Alexander additionally underscored the function life-style drugs performs in weight problems administration.

“If lifestyle medicine is the foundation to all medicine and all treatment of patients, then obesity medicine is the scaffolding — what we build upon to support our patients further,” she mentioned. “This is the future of care.”

Alexander famous that the majority Americans wrestle with unhealthy weight. To tackle this, “we need all the tools available to us,” she mentioned.

“Nutrition, movement, sleep, stress reduction and connection are all very important, but so are medications and — when appropriate — surgery,” Alexander mentioned. “[They’re] not shortcuts but adjunctive therapy to help maintain the progress lifestyle makes possible.”

Alexander mentioned the panel dialogue displays “a growing recognition across these specialties that first-line treatment must begin with lifestyle.”

“My call to action is, let’s dream of a system where the first question isn’t ‘how do we medicate,’ but ‘what’s driving that disease? What’s behind it?’ The care plan begins with values, biology and goals, not blame, and every patient has access to tools without stigma, and science without shame,” she mentioned. “We have the power not just to treat disease, but to redefine what it means to be well.”

APA

Lifestyle drugs cannot solely assist tackle bodily points but additionally psychological well being, Viswanathan identified.

“Eighty percent of health care spending in the U.S. is for conditions [caused by] unhealthy lifestyle, but these conditions are even more pronounced in patients whom psychiatrists and other behavioral health specialists care for,” he defined. “We know lifestyle medicine can promote physical and mental health.”

Viswanathan cited a randomized medical trial that confirmed hippocampus quantity elevated by round 12% to fifteen% in sufferers with schizophrenia who had been assigned to both biking for half-hour thrice per week or desk tennis for an equal period of time vs. those that didn’t train.

“This is an astounding finding about neuroplasticity,” he mentioned. “This was accompanied by symptomatic improvement in patients with schizophrenia.”

Viswanathan shared different knowledge exhibiting the constructive results of wholesome consuming and train for psychological well being circumstances comparable to melancholy. The message, although, will not be remedy vs. life-style, Viswanathan mentioned. Medications needs to be used when crucial for psychological well being along with life-style drugs.

ACSM

As the sports activities drugs doctor, Jaworski underlined the function of teamwork and collaboration to finally push life-style drugs advocacy, analysis and well being insurance policies ahead, saying “ACLM can’t do it alone.”

ACSM was based within the Fifties on a standard precept as ACLM, which is that “sports medicine, similar to lifestyle medicine, defies any specific discipline.”

“It’s not one specialty as you see from the panel. It’s all of us together who are going to move the dial,” she mentioned. “The team approach always wins.”

Sources/Disclosures

Source:

Mukkamala B, et al. The ubiquitousness of life-style drugs: A presidents panel with AMA, APA, OMA, ACOG, ACSM. Presented at: Lifestyle Medicine Conference; Nov. 16-19, 2025; Dallas.

References:

Disclosures:
Alexander reviews consulting for Amgen, serving as an advisor to Novo Nordisk and serving on the speaker’s bureau for Eli Lilly. Fleischman, Jaworski, Mukkamala, Patel and Viswanathan report no related monetary disclosures.

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