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Teaching Doctors to Teach Patients about Lifestyle Everybody knows that diet, exercise and other aspects of lifestyle play a significant role in health. But the specifics are less well understood. To what extent does lifestyle cause or contribute to disease and disability? And what exactly is a healthy lifestyle anyway? There is much confusion about what type of diet or exercise is best, not to mention how much sleep, stress or sex is ideal. Nor is it clear how best to motivate people to change their habits. This lack of clarity has inspired a growing movement to inform health professionals and patients about the importance of lifestyle in preventing and treating disease. Its aims are to disseminate scientific research about what it means to live well and to encourage doctors and other providers to incorporate this knowledge into their practices. Two years ago, a group of doctors founded an organization with the goal of making lifestyle medicine a credentialed clinical specialty and a part of basic medical training. Symptomatically treating disease without assessing patients lifestyles or offering them guidance on how to change is irresponsible and bordering on neglect, said Dr. John H. Kelly Jr. , president of the fledgling organization, the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. A professor of preventive medicine at the Loma Linda University School of Medicine in California, Dr. Kelly said the group was formed because of people like his uncle. | 
