Personalized Lifestyle Medicine

Lifestyle medicine is the application of exercise, nutrition, and other lifestyle habits to maintain and improve human health. It is becoming clear that the typical elements of pharmacologic medicine apply to lifestyle medicine. These include the following principles: dosing is important; not every agent works identically in all individuals; variations in response are partly related to genetic factors. An equally important concept is apparent: the interaction between pharmacologic therapy and lifestyle approaches is just now becoming important in the application of the principles of personalized lifestyle medicine in clinical practice. Also, the principles of personalized or precision medicine apply to lifestyle medicine-the goal is the right therapy, for the right person, for the right condition, at the right time. Predicting who will respond in what manner to what lifestyle intervention in the presence or absence of pharmacologic therapy will enable precision lifestyle medicine in the future.

Duke Scholars

Author William Erle Kraus Medicine, Cardiology