American College of Lifestyle Medicine publishes official position on lifestyle medicine as a framework for delivery of high-value, whole-person care

The position paper from the medical and professional society for lifestyle medicine provides a roadmap with training, board certification, clinical practice toolkits, and numerous other resources to implement lifestyle medicine care.

American College of Lifestyle Medicine

FacebookXLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) has published a position paper calling for the implementation of lifestyle medicine as a high-value care solution that delivers on the Quintuple Aim—better health outcomes, higher patient and clinician satisfaction, greater health equity, and lower costs.

The paper includes five position statements asserting that lifestyle medicine—a rapidly growing medical specialty focused on evidence-based lifestyle interventions to treat, reverse and prevent chronic disease—offers a scalable and sustainable approach to address the nation’s escalating chronic disease burden and unsustainable healthcare costs. Lifestyle medicine is practiced across primary and specialty care, inpatient and outpatient settings, in both one-on-one and group visits, and through both in-person and virtual modalities. The paper was published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine.

“ACLM’s High-Value Care Framework redefines what quality care means in modern medicine, translating lifestyle medicine into a model that fulfills the Quintuple Aim,” said ACLM President Padmaja Patel, MD, DipABLM, FACLM, CPE, a co-author on the paper. “It aligns seamlessly with the full continuum of care —from prevention to treatment to remission—demonstrating that lifestyle medicine is not confined to one stage but is integral to them all. Lifestyle medicine is high-value care delivery. It offers a unifying framework that mobilizes people, teams, and systems to prevent disease and restore health.”

To create the framework, a task force was assembled of experts from fields that included family medicine, internal medicine, emergency medicine, endocrinology, cardiology, pediatrics, oncology, preventive medicine, and psychiatry, all with substantial experience practicing lifestyle medicine. The paper outlines five key position statements establishing lifestyle medicine as:

• A care delivery model that addresses the escalating chronic disease healthcare burden
• A powerful catalyst for healthcare transformation that delivers the Quintuple Aim
• Whole-person care implemented for all populations, across various settings, intensities, and modalities
• A model delivered by trained, interdisciplinary experts in chronic disease care across the continuum, including prevention, treatment, and remission of disease
• Rooted in nine core elements essential to an effective and evidence-based lifestyle medicine care framework: accessible, comprehensive, high quality, integrated, whole-person, accountable, cost-effective, equitable, and achievable.  

Chronic diseases account for the vast majority of healthcare spending and preventable deaths in the U.S. Despite spending nearly $5 trillion annually, the nation has the lowest performance on key population health metrics like life expectancy and mortality. The concept of lifestyle medicine as a framework for high-value care comes at a critical time, as ongoing efforts to reform healthcare and control costs—such as managed care and value-based payment models—have underscored the need for better coordination and accountability.

“This framework demonstrates how lifestyle medicine may be implemented at all points of care across the health system that makes high-value, whole-person care a reality,” said Lead Author Samrina Marshall, MD, MPH, DipABLM.  “By empowering patients and supporting clinicians with training, certification, and practical tools, we can advance the Quintuple Aim and transform the health of our communities.”

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.

---

Journal

American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine

DOI

10.1177/15598276251390437 

Method of Research

News article

Article Title

American College of Lifestyle Medicine publishes official position on lifestyle medicine as a framework for delivery of high-value, whole-person care

Article Publication Date

25-Nov-2025

 

New study investigates how diet may slow normal brain aging

Insights may be relevant to accelerated brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease

Boston University School of Medicine

FacebookXLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

(Boston)—As the brain ages, cells in the central nervous system experience metabolic dysfunction and increased oxidative damage. These cellular issues impair the ability to maintain the myelin sheath (the protective covering around nerve fibers), which leads to age-related white matter degradation. Microglia are the brain's primary immune cells, and their activation is a normal response to injury or infection. In conditions like aging or Alzheimer's, microglia can become chronically activated, leading to a harmful inflammatory state that damages neurons, but the exact reasons are not fully understood.

 

A new study from researchers at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine has found that consuming 30% fewer calories than usual for more than 20 years, can slow down signs of aging in the brain. The study was done using an experimental model closely related to humans.

 

“While calorie restriction is a well-established intervention that can slow biological aging and may reduce age-related metabolic alterations in shorter-lived experimental models, this study  provides rare, long-term evidence that calorie restriction may also protect against brain aging in more complex species,” says corresponding author Ana Vitantonio, a fifth-year PhD student in the department of pharmacology, physiology & biophysics.

 

The study was initiated in the 1980’s in collaboration with the National Institute on Aging and included two groups of subjects. One group ate a normal, balanced diet, while the other group ate approximately 30% fewer calories. The main goal of the original study was to determine if eating fewer calories could extend their lifespan. The subjects lived out their natural lives; their brains were analyzed postmortem.

 

The researchers used a technique known as single nuclei RNA sequencing which allowed them to assess the molecular profile of individual brain cells. They compared the brain cells from subjects who ate a normal diet versus the calorie restricted diet, which allowed them to see how eating fewer calories influenced the expression of genes and activity of pathways linked to aging in brain cells.

 

The calorie restricted brain cells were metabolically healthier and more functional, exhibiting increased expression of myelin-related genes and enhanced activity in key metabolic pathways (glycolytic and fatty acid biosynthetic pathways) that are crucial for myelin production and maintenance. 

According to the researcher, these findings support that long-term dietary interventions can shape the trajectory of brain aging on a cellular level. “This is important because these cellular alterations could have implications that are relevant to cognition and learning. In other words, dietary habits may influence brain health and eating fewer calories may slow some aspects of brain aging when implemented long term,” adds co-author Tara L. Moore, PhD, professor of anatomy & neurobiology.

 

These finding appear online in the journal Aging Cell.

 

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health awards 1RF1AG062831-01, 2RF1AG043640-06, NIGMS 5T32GM008541-25, 1R21DK143406-01 and the NIA Intramural Research Program, NIH.
 

---

Journal

Aging Cell

DOI

10.1111/acel.70298 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Calorie Restriction Attenuates Transcriptional Aging Signatures in White Matter Oligodendrocytes and Immune Cells of the Monkey Brain

Article Publication Date

24-Nov-2025

 

Is malaria messaging working? African biostatisticians have the data

Edson Mwebesa, Fellow at the Wits-based Sub-Saharan Africa Advanced Consortium for Biostatistics (SSACAB), knows children who died from late-diagnosed malaria.

University of the Witwatersrand

FacebookXLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

His research has also revealed that malaria is more prevalent in pregnant Ugandan women than in any other population. Malaria is also endemic across Africa, impacting all aspects of social and economic life.

Mwebesa, a biostatistician, wanted to dive deeper into what made people choose methods to help prevent malaria. He focused on social and behavioural change messaging, an essential part of encouraging people to use insecticide-treated nets (ITNs). While messaging campaigns have been implemented in the media, hospitals, and schools, the question of whether these messages actually change behaviour remains uncertain.

Robust biostatistics methods used by African experts are set to change this.

Mwebesa applied a quasi-experimental causal inference method, known as Propensity Score Matching, to investigate this phenomenon. This approach can measure, with precision, whether messaging actually changes behaviour.

Traditionally, measuring messaging impact relied on simple correlations and on counting how many people heard a message and whether they used a mosquito bed net. But correlation cannot reveal whether the messages caused the behaviour, which in this case is using the mosquito net. Those who heard or saw the messages might differ from those who did not, and thus, the use of mosquito nets might not be comparable between these groups. Those who hear malaria messages are often wealthier, more educated, or better connected, and these factors independently increase bed net use. This has made it difficult for policymakers to know whether expensive behaviour-change campaigns genuinely deliver impact.

Mwebesa measured the impact of messaging aimed at women in Uganda. In that country, about one in four children under five years old tested positive for malaria. In some districts, incidence rates over six-month periods have exceeded 500 cases per 1000 people, demonstrating how quickly the disease can spread in high-transmission settings. Malaria causes fever, chills, weakness, anaemia, and in some cases, complications involving the brain, lungs and other organs. Beyond the clinical burden, malaria disrupts schooling, reduces productivity and places immense strain on household finances, particularly among poorer families.

Understanding how to drive preventive behaviour in this context is both a scientific and operational priority. Historically, however, researchers lacked the tools and data required to measure the impact of health communication. In 2001, economists John Luke Gallup and Jeffrey Sachs, writing in The Intolerable Burden of Malaria, explained that reliable data on malaria incidence were lacking for many of the most severely affected countries.

They constructed an indirect malaria index using historical risk maps, estimates of the proportion of falciparum malaria and population distribution data. Their work was pioneering but constrained by limited information, underscoring how weak data systems restricted the ability to study malaria’s economic and social effects. They could not measure behaviour or the effectiveness of prevention campaigns. They could only infer risk.

“We’re in a different position now. We have conducted repeated Malaria Indicator Surveys, geocoded demographic data, collected extensive health record data, and improved surveillance systems. What’s most exciting, though, is how we are growing the capacity to analyse data using modern causal methods,” says Mwebesa.

Institutions such as SSACAB have trained a new generation of African biostatisticians who can use advanced techniques to answer complex policy questions that were previously out of reach.

Mwebesa used nationally representative data from the 2018–19 Malaria Indicator Survey and examined whether exposure to malaria messages increases the use of insecticide-treated nets among women of reproductive age and children under five in Uganda. The descriptive findings show that 37.6 per cent of women aged 15–49 and 37.9 per cent of caregivers of young children had been exposed to malaria prevention messages in the six months preceding the survey. Net use was higher but not universal: 69.3 per cent of women reported sleeping under an insecticide-treated net the night before the survey, as did 71.8 per cent of children under five.

Mwebesa’s use of propensity score matching paired each woman who was exposed to malaria messages with another woman who was not, but who shared similar characteristics, such as age, education level, wealth, household size, region, and urban or rural residence. By ensuring that the two groups are comparable, the method isolates the effect of the messaging itself.

“For years, people assumed that malaria messages influenced behaviour, but this analysis shows, with causal evidence, exactly how much they matter. Our findings demonstrate that communication increases net use. We can now quantify this,” he said.

After matching, women who were exposed to malaria messages were 5.1 percent more likely to sleep under an insecticide-treated net than similar women who were not exposed. Among children, caregivers’ exposure to messages increased ITN use by 4.3 percent.

These differences, when applied nationally, translate into tens of thousands of additional protected households and reduced malaria direct and indirect costs. The study also identified which communication channels were major sources of malaria messages. Radio emerged as the dominant messaging channel, reaching roughly two-thirds of women and caregivers. Community health workers and interpersonal communication were also influential. Digital platforms were used far less frequently, suggesting an untapped potential.

Professor Tobias Chirwa, Principal Investigator for SSACAB and Head of the Wits School of Public Health, explains why this type of work matters for Africa’s statistical future. “This study shows what becomes possible when we combine strong African data with strong African statistical capacity. We move from describing problems to measuring impact. That is the essence of statistical innovation. African biostatisticians are leading analyses that were impossible twenty years ago.”

In light of African Statistics Day, this work reflects an important shift in statistical justice and evidence sovereignty. Africa is no longer dependent on global assumptions or incomplete models. It can produce high-quality causal evidence that speaks to households' lived realities and informs local policy with accuracy and confidence. This, in turn, supports more efficient investments in communication campaigns, builds equity by identifying which groups are least reached and strengthens the effectiveness of malaria prevention efforts across the continent.

African Statistics Day 2025 highlights the theme of leveraging innovations in data and statistics to promote a just, peaceful, inclusive and prosperous society for Africans. In the field of malaria prevention, this theme is particularly resonant.

---

Journal

Malaria Journal

DOI

10.1186/s12936-025-05629-7 

Article Title

Effect of exposure to malaria messages on insecticide-treated net use among women and under-five children in Uganda: a propensity score matched analysis

Article Publication Date

18-Nov-2025

Study shows new hope for commercially attractive lithium extraction from spent batteries

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau

FacebookXLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

A new University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign study demonstrates a commercially viable method for extracting lithium — a critical element used in rechargeable batteries and susceptible to supply chain disruptions — from used battery waste using an electrochemically driven recovery process.

view more 

Credit: Photo courtesy Storyblocks

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new study shows that lithium — a critical element used in rechargeable batteries and susceptible to supply chain disruption — can be recovered from battery waste using an electrochemically driven recovery process. The method has been tested on commonly used types of lithium-containing batteries and demonstrates economic viability with the potential to simplify operations, minimize costs and increase the sustainability and attractiveness of the recovery process for commercial use.

The study, led by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Xiao Su, describes a process that leaches metals from batteries into an organic solvent, then uses an electrochemical cell in which a polymer-coated electrode is used to capture lithium.

“The main challenge is the presence of other metals in lithium recovery streams, particularly in organic leachates, which is a common way to dissolve spent batteries for recycling,” Su said. “To overcome these challenges, we’ve introduced a copolymer that captures lithium selectively directly from organic solvents and that can be electrochemically regenerated.”

The study findings are published in the journal ACS Energy Letters and were co-led by former graduate student Nayeong Kim, with contributions from postdoctoral researchers Johannes Elbert and Hee-Eun Kim and undergraduate student Chengxian Wu.

In the lab, Su’s research team dismantles batteries and leaches out metals into an organic solvent, creating a mixture containing lithium and other metals. They then moved the solvent into an electrochemical cell with an electrode coated with a specially designed copolymer that specifically captures lithium ions from the mixture, much like a sponge.

“The lithium-filled electrode is then put into a new solution, and a voltage is applied,” Su said. “That triggers the polymer to release the captured lithium ions, which are collected, while leaving other metals behind in the original leachate. This electrochemical regeneration allows for repeated cycles of selective, efficient lithium recovery from waste batteries.”

Su’s research in resource recovery typically includes an economic viability analysis, and this study follows with that hallmark.

“We found that, using a three-stage approach, the recovered lithium could be produced at a cost that is economically favorable compared to current lithium market prices,” he said.

This means the new method could be significantly less expensive or at least cost-competitive with existing methods of lithium production. Su said that while the proof-of-concept results are very promising, there is still room for more work in scaling up the system as well as process modeling to validate their findings further.

“These results help highlight the broad applicability of electrochemical separations for metal recycling, not only in water, but also from organic solvents that are commonly used to leach waste batteries. We envision this work helping establish a more circular, sustainable supply chain for lithium, enhancing supply security and potentially reducing the environmental impacts associated with other forms of lithium extraction, such as mining.”

The U.S. Department of Energy supported this research through the Basic Energy Sciences program, grant #DE-SC0025636. Su also is affiliated with civil and environmental engineering, chemistry and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the U. of I. 

Editor’s note:   To reach Xiao Su, email x2su@illinois.edu. The paper “Redox-active crown ether copolymer for selective lithium recovery from spent lithium-ion battery” is available online. DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.5c01901. Chemical and biomolecular engineering and civil and environmental engineering are part of The Grainger College of Engineering.

---

Journal

ACS Energy Letters

DOI

10.1021/acsenergylett.5c01901 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Redox-active crown ether copolymer for selective lithium recovery from spent lithium-ion battery