Official Standards of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine
In the fall of 2012, ACLM convened a Task Force to draft and memorialize the Official Standards for ACLM and of the field of Lifestyle Medicine.
The document opens with the preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization from 1946:
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
The Standards document then set forth a definition of Lifestyle Medicine:
Lifestyle Medicine is the therapeutic use of evidence-based lifestyle interventions to treat and prevent lifestyle related diseases in a clinical setting. It empowers individuals with the knowledge and life skills to make effective behavior changes that address the underlying causes of disease.
Task Force members included:
- Editor: Jennifer Rooke, MD, MPH, FACOEM, FACPM
- John Gobble, DrPH, RD, LD, MCHES
- Tasha Ballard, PhD, RN
- Willy Oglesby, PhD, MSPH, FACHE
- George Guthrie, MD, FACPM
- Corey Howard, MD, FACP
- R. Jason Newsom, MD