According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, in 2020, Hispanics were 1.5 times more likely than non-Hispanic whites to die from diabetes. In 2022, Hispanic adults were 60% more likely than non-Hispanic white adults to be diagnosed with diabetes. Race-concordant care and bi-lingual clinicians have been integral to helping Spanish-speaking patients navigate resources and address lifestyle factors that can help address these disproportionate statistics.
Lifestyle medicine is the medical specialty that addresses modifiable risk factors through evidence-based therapeutic lifestyle intervention to treat the whole person. ACLM trains clinicians to identify and eradicate the root causes of disease. These clinicians are then equipped to educate and empower patients to understand and sustainably adopt more healthful lifestyle behaviors to both protect health and fight disease. Grounded in six key interconnected pillars, with optimal nutrition being foremost, lifestyle medicine treats, reverses, and prevents chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
“With nearly 3,200 NAHN members and 46 chapters across the nation, our nurses are committed to learn more about food as medicine and the other pillars of lifestyle medicine to improve the health of the patients and communities we serve,” said NAHN President, Veronica Vital, PhD, MLS, RN. “Lifestyle medicine has the potential to transform the way clinicians deliver care, which is why it’s so important that providers are equipped with the knowledge and tools to prescribe interventions that are not only effective, but also culturally meaningful and appropriate.”
Partnerships with organizations like NAHN–a nonprofit devoted to ensuring high-quality health care delivery to Hispanic communities–support ACLM’s efforts to make lifestyle medicine accessible to all populations.
ACLM’s HEAL Initiative scholarship program, designed to diversify the lifestyle medicine workforce, is for underrepresented in medicine clinicians seeking training and certification in lifestyle medicine. The Oct. 1 webinar will feature 2025 HEAL Initiative scholar, Claudia C. Guillen, DNP, AGPCNP-BC, who will present on bringing a plant-based nutrition and chronic disease prevention program to underserved Latino communities. She will be joined by NAHN member and Clinical Associate Professor at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing Karla Rodriguez, DNP, RN, CNE, DipACLM, NC-BC, who will share evidenced-based strategies for integrating lifestyle medicine into teaching and research.
Through its Health Equity Achieved through Lifestyle Medicine (HEAL) Initiative, ACLM collaborates with strategic partners to address lifestyle-related chronic disease health disparities through lifestyle medicine solutions. The Community Engaged Lifestyle Medicine (CELM) framework emphasizes the importance of cultural responsiveness as one of four core elements in addressing these disparities. NAHN’s dedication to promoting professional excellence among bilingual and bicultural nurses aligns with research that suggests that race-concordant patient interactions improve quality care for historically marginalized groups and for patients where language can be a barrier to care.
“ACLM’s vision is a nation wherein lifestyle medicine is the foundation of health and all healthcare—with all people, in all places having the benefit of root cause treatment as the standard of care,” said ACLM CEO Susan Benigas. “We cannot, as an organization, do this alone. Our partnership with NAHN and other organizations working to ensure that all patients have access to clinicians trained to help guide them in eradicating the root causes of disease are vital. Lifestyle medicine’s interprofessional care team, with nurses and nurse practitioners being essential team members, is the future of a transformed and sustainable system of healthcare delivery.”
About ACLM®
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) is the nation’s medical professional society advancing the field of lifestyle medicine as the foundation of a redesigned, value-based and equitable healthcare delivery system, essential to achieving the Quintuple Aim and whole-person health. ACLM represents, advocates for, trains, certifies, and equips its members to identify and eradicate the root cause of chronic disease by optimizing modifiable risk factors. ACLM is filling the gaping void of lifestyle medicine in medical education, providing more than 1.2 million hours of lifestyle medicine education to physicians and other health professionals since 2004, while also advancing research, clinical practice and reimbursement strategies.
About NAHN
Since 1975, NAHN has been the nation’s leading professional society for Latino nurses. With a growing membership of more than 40 local chapters, NAHN represents the voices of over 220,000 Latino nurses throughout the United States. NAHN is devoted to promoting safe, quality health care delivery to Latino communities and recognizing excellence among Latino nurses. To learn more, visit http://www.nahnnet.org.
Media Contact
Alex Branch, American College of Lifestyle Medicine, 8173072399, [email protected], American College of Lifestyle Medicine
SOURCE American College of Lifestyle Medicine