Lifestyle Medicine

Achieving better health starts with understanding your lifestyle and making proactive changes. With our Lifestyle Medicine consultations, we offer a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to improving your overall well-being.

• 30-minute assessment with Dr Onen to explore your lifestyle, including diet, exercise, stress, sleep, and other factors that impact your health
• We take a holistic approach, using the latest research to tailor personalised recommendations that support long-term health improvements
• Blood tests and additional investigations can be arranged to provide a deeper understanding of your current health status, available at an additional cost

Whether you’re looking to improve your energy, manage a chronic condition, or simply live a healthier life, this session offers the support and guidance you need to make lasting changes.

What is Lifestyle Medicine?

Lifestyle Medicine is evidence-based clinical care that focuses on behavioural lifestyle changes to improve your overall health and wellbeing. This practice aims to move away from the overuse of medication to treat conditions related to lifestyle. In turn, Lifestyle Medicine focuses on improving people’s health through six pillars.

These are mental wellbeing, physical activity, healthy relationships, healthy eating, sleep and minimising use of harmful substances.

The Six Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine

Find out what each of the pillars are and why they lay the foundations for optimal health.

Sleep

Sleep is the cornerstone of lifestyle medicine and is fundamental for overall health. Adequate, good quality sleep plays a pivotal role in regulating various bodily functions, including mood, cognition, and physical health. It’s during sleep that our bodies repair and rejuvenate, which is essential for mental wellbeing and to help manage stress.

Poor sleep patterns are linked to numerous health issues including depression, high blood pressure, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, cardiovascular disease and obesity. Therefore, prioritising good sleep hygiene is crucial to improve physical and mental wellbeing, improve energy levels, and maintain a balanced, healthy lifestyle.

Discover tips on how to improve your sleep.

Mental Wellbeing

Mental wellbeing stands as a central pillar of lifestyle medicine, emphasising the profound connection between mind and body. Prioritising mental health is crucial for overall wellbeing, as it directly influences physical health and quality of life.

Lifestyle medicine teaches proven techniques to reduce stress and help people with relaxation. These include using nature, exercise, social connection and mindfulness to reduce stress levels, prevent and improve common mental health conditions. By nurturing and prioritising mental wellbeing, there can be a natural improvement in physical health, sleep and healthy eating too as well as reduction of harmful substances people often use to cope.

Read our advice on how you can improve your mental wellbeing.

Physical Activity

Physical activity is crucial for both physical and mental health. Regular physical activity helps maintain a healthy body weight, improves cardiovascular health, and enhances muscle and bone strength. Beyond the physical, it’s a potent mood booster – reducing stress and anxiety while naturally increasing the release of endorphins. The good news is that physical activity means any form of physical activity that gets your body moving. This could mean dancing, walking, gardening or even doing the housework.

Lifestyle medicine encourages incorporating physical activity into daily routines to reduce how much time we spend sitting down in order to prevent chronic diseases, elevate mood, and maintain overall health. It also aims to ensure we stay strong, fit and healthy as we grow older to have the best quality of life we can for many years to come.

Find out more about the importance of physical activity and tips on how to become more active.

Healthy Diet

A healthy diet serves as a fundamental pillar of lifestyle medicine and strongly contributes to our overall wellbeing. What we eat profoundly influences our physical health, including weight management, heart health, and disease prevention. Equally crucial, it significantly impacts mental health, with certain nutrients playing pivotal roles in mood regulation and cognitive function.

Lifestyle medicine champions the adoption of balanced, varied and nutrient-rich diets to optimise health, reduce the risk of chronic diseases, and enhance mental wellbeing – reinforcing the idea that food is medicine for both body and mind.

Find out more about the importance of a healthy diet and views resources to improve what you eat.

Healthy Relationships

Healthy relationships is a key pillar in lifestyle medicine – recognising the profound impact of social connections to overall wellbeing. Positive relationships provide emotional support, reduce stress and enhance mental health. They can also influence lifestyle choices and encourage healthy habits. Conversely, toxic relationships can lead to chronic stress and negatively affect mental and physical health.

Lifestyle medicine promotes fostering and maintaining meaningful, supportive relationships to help develop a crucial sense of belonging and purpose.

Read our tips on forming and maintaining healthy relationships.

Minimising Harmful Substances

Minimising harmful substances emphasises the importance of avoiding or reducing exposure to toxins, pollutants, and addictive substances. Lifestyle medicine recognizes that these substances can harm both physical and mental health, contributing to chronic diseases and mental health difficulties.

Through the reduction of harmful substances, individuals can safeguard their wellbeing, improve their quality of life, and work towards a healthier, more balanced lifestyle.

Find out more about the importance of minimising harmful substances and view resources of support.