Lifestyle medicine: the Australian experience

As with other advanced countries, the obesity epidemic began in the late 1970s and early 1980s in Australia, signaling the end of a “sweet spot ” in human advancement. Abstract: Changes in disease pat-terns from predominantly infectious to predominantly chronic diseases in Australia, in line with economic devel-opment throughout the developed world, have led to the need for changes in conventional health practice. This has resulted in a movement toward an evidence-based discipline of life-style medicine incorporating aspects of both public health and clinical medi-cine, aimed at moderating lifestyle and environmentally based etiologies. A professional association, postgraduate and continuing professional develop-ment training, working text, interac-tive Web site, and annual conference, as described here, are designed to com-plement conventional medical knowl-edge and practices. Changes to the Australian health system, which oper-ates on a dual public/private model have made this approach more feasi-ble and continue to be adapted to allow a more comprehensive approach to life-style-related health problems