ABSTRACT
Employers are becoming more interested in lifestyle modifications as a remedy for poor population health and ever-rising healthcare costs because they are potential game changers in achieving outcomes that are seldom, if ever, realized through other means. A comprehensive lifestyle approach to health is a low-cost intervention that has been scientifically proven to prevent, treat, reverse, or cure many common chronic diseases and health conditions. Employers are also taking notice of the science of epigenetics, a relatively new area of research supporting lifestyle management. Improving lifestyle behaviors is most successfully achieved under the supervision of healthcare providers trained in Lifestyle Medicine. A healthcare provider trained in lifestyle medicine understands and uses behavior modification as a critical tool in treating and reversing disease. The inefficiencies resulting from underutilizing lifestyle medicine, combined with misaligned incentives and reimbursements for care, increase the waste and cost of providing healthcare for employees.
