
Lifestyle Medicine
Many common chronic diseases are rooted, at least in part, in lifestyle. Among them are leading causes of death worldwide: heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and certain cancers.
Lifestyle intervention
By changing your lifestyle, you can often prevent, halt, or reverse these common chronic diseases. This is particularly true if you pursue an intensive, therapeutic lifestyle intervention.
“Almost all clinical practice guidelines for the top chronic diseases recommend lifestyle changes as the first line of treatment.”
Catherine Collings, MD, FACC, MS, DipABLM
President, American College of Lifestyle Medicine
More than 40 peer-reviewed publications document the effectiveness of the Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP) lifestyle intervention in reducing and reversing risk factors related to:
- Diabetes
- Hypertension
- Obesity
- Heart disease
- Other chronic disease
When you join the CHIP community, you embark on a journey to a new lifestyle. You learn how to shift your daily habits to help your body recover and thrive.
Targets for change
Imagine that your lifestyle choices were rated on a scale of 1 to 10, based on how well they sustain your health. A rating of 1 represents a habit that is damaging to your health. A rating of 10 represents an ideal, healthful way of living.
CHIP works by shifting your way of life from the low end of the scale toward the high end. It helps you create positive change across 6 targeted areas:
Activity
Exercise, even gentle movement like walking, lowers blood pressure, elevates mood, improves circulation, strengthens muscles, boosts immunity, and leads to more restful sleep.
Nutrition
Fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and legumes are key to restoring health. CHIP recommends a plant-rich, minimally processed eating pattern.
Sleep
7-8 hours a night of restorative sleep is critical for weight control, blood sugar regulation, cardiovascular health, mood, dementia prevention, and keeping your immune system strong.
Social Connection
Family, friends, and community play a powerful role in maintaining health. Research links social connection with fewer ailments and a longer life.
Risky Substances
Alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, and drugs can threaten your health, as can environmental toxins and pollutants. It is important to understand and manage the risks.
Stress Management
It’s no secret that managing stress makes you feel happier. But it also helps you control your weight, reduce risk for heart disease and dementia, reduce muscle tension, get sick less often, and sleep soundly.
Taking aim at disease
Because CHIP is designed to improve overall health, it reduces and reverses risk factors for a wide range of diseases. Upon entering the programme, participants complete a health-risk assessment and blood analysis. In 8 weeks, participants repeat the tests. CHIP compares the original and new measurements to identify changes in key biometrics and wellbeing scores.
Many CHIP participants not only reverse disease, but sustain their health improvements for years.
CHIP achieves impressive results in highest risk patients
Average biomarker declines after a 30-day intervention
Triglycerides
44.1% decline
Initial level: Above 500mg/dl
Fasting plasma glucose
19.9% decline
Initial level: Above 125mg/dl
Total cholesterol
19.8% decline
Initial level: Above 280mg/dl
LDL cholesterol
16.1% decline
Initial level: Above 190mg/dl
Participants with metabolic syndrome
10.4% decline
Body mass index
3.2% decline
Cardiologist aims to reverse heart disease using CHIP
Dr. Brian Asbill speaks about the effectiveness of the CHIP programme at Mission Heart.
Proven to work
A body of research supports the premise that lifestyle modification is an effective tool to prevent, treat, and reverse disease.
Nutrition
Activity
Sleep
Social Connection
Risky substances
Stress management
“Within 2 months of going on the CHIP program, my cholesterol was halved. My blood pressure was down. In fact, I had to lower my blood pressure pills.”
Mark M.

Intensive lifestyle changes improve heart health
The Lifestyle Heart Trial demonstrated that intensive lifestyle changes may lead to regression of coronary atherosclerosis after 1 year.
In this randomised controlled trial, patients with moderate to severe coronary heart disease were randomly divided into two groups. One group adopted intensive lifestyle changes: a 10% fat whole foods vegetarian diet, aerobic exercise, stress management training, smoking cessation, and group psycho-social support. The control group made moderate lifestyle changes.
After 1 year, results were as follows: | Patients adopting intensive lifestyle changes After 1 year of intensive lifestyle changes | Usual-care control group After 1 year of moderate lifestyle changes | ||
LDL cholesterol | 37.2% reduction | 6% reduction | ||
Frequency of anginal episodes | 91% reduction | 165% increase | ||
Average percent diameter stenosis | Regressed from 40.0% to 37.8%* *Change correlated with the degree of lifestyle change. | Progressed from 42.7% to 46.1% |
Source: “Intensive Lifestyle Changes for Reversal of Coronary Heart Disease,” Journal of the American Medical Association, Dec. 16, 1998, Vol. 280, No. 23