Healing Beyond the Prescription Pad
- Mar 6
- 4 min read
Marci Wanted a Prescription. She Got Something Else.
My friend, Marci, consulted a doctor about her back pain last month. She expected the doctor to give her a prescription for pain medication or perhaps a steroid injection. Instead, the doctor demonstrated exercises to strengthen the muscles in her torso—reducing the strain on her back.
Marci’s doctor was practicing lifestyle medicine, an approach that promotes healing by addressing the root causes of illness rather than just managing symptoms. Lifestyle medicine is built on six pillars:
Optimal nutrition: minimally processed whole foods—vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds
Physical activity: about 150 minutes of moderate movement each week
Restorative sleep: seven to nine hours of quality rest nightly
Stress management: practices like mindfulness and deep breathing to build resilience
Social connection: meaningful relationships and a sense of purpose
Avoiding risky substances: limiting or eliminating alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs
I'm a member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM), which encourages healthcare professionals to expand their toolkit beyond medications and procedures. Its mission is simple: advance evidence-based lifestyle medicine to prevent, treat, and even reverse chronic illness.
Why is Lifestyle Medicine Important?
Despite growing awareness of disease prevention, rates of chronic illness in the U.S. continue to rise alongside healthcare costs. In 1960, one out of every twenty dollars was spent on health care. Today, it’s closer to one in five. According to the ACLM, about 60% of Americans live with at least one chronic disease contributing to trillions in annual health costs.
My book, Eight Intentions for Self-Healing, explores four of the lifestyle medicine pillars. I chose stress management as the first intention in the book because it is foundational to our wellbeing. Chronic stress contributes to heart disease, diabetes, dementia, cancer, autoimmune disorders—and yes, even back pain.
So, did the exercises resolve Marci’s back pain? We may never know. She left the appointment frustrated and immediately scheduled a visit with another doctor. This time, she received the prescription she wanted.
Why Don't More Doctors Practice Lifestyle Medicine?
There are many reasons doctors resort to prescribing medications over lifestyle interventions. For one, lifestyle modifications can be difficult to implement. Teaching behavior change strategies takes time—something many clinicians lack in today’s system. A growing number of physicians are adding health coaches to their staffs, but insurance reimbursement for preventative services is inconsistent.
Second, doctors are financially incentivized to recommend drug company’s products to their patients. A meta analysis from 2021 reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine valued the cash and in-kind compensation paid to US physicians in 2018 at $2.18 billion.
Finally, patients themselves may resist recommendations that require effort, patience, or habit change. Like Marci, some simply seek another healthcare provider. We live in a culture that values speed and convenience, so it’s understandable that we look for quick fixes. But real healing is rarely instant.
What's Wrong with Prescriptions?
The real question isn’t whether medications or procedures have a place—they often do. The deeper question is this: are we also giving our bodies what they need to heal? Lifestyle medicine reminds us that vitality is not something handed to us in a prescription.
Medication often treats symptoms rather than causes. Pain relievers may dull discomfort, but they don’t strengthen weak muscles. And while prescriptions can be helpful—even lifesaving—they also come with potential downsides: cost, side effects, and drug interactions.
We’ve all heard those rapid-fire disclaimers at the end of pharmaceutical ads. Those are only the major side effects. Listing every possibility would take far longer than a commercial allows. Sometimes side effects are significant enough that people stop taking medications altogether. Meanwhile, the underlying issue remains. In Marci’s case, strengthening her core might have offered benefits beyond pain relief—supporting mobility and quality of life as she ages.
Our bodies possess a remarkable ability to heal when given the right conditions. In a previous blog post, I shared Tim’s story. Although research shows that dietary changes can help clear plaque from arteries, Tim chose to have a stent inserted in his coronary artery instead of foregoing his beloved fries and milkshakes. Now he relies on a blood thinner to reduce the risk of clots forming around the stent.
I believe so deeply in intentional self-healing that I wrote a book about it. When we bring awareness to how we eat, move, rest, and respond to stress, we step into a more active role in our own wellbeing. Healing becomes less about searching for an extrinsic solution—and more about remembering the wisdom already built into our bodies.
Lifestyle medicine offers us a way to reclaim our personal power to heal. Self-empowerment may not be the most expedient solution, but it is the lower-cost and more rewarding option.
How Do I Get Started?
Transformation begins with identifying our motivation to change. Then, commit to one achievable lifestyle modification. The ACLM infographic below offer starting points for each pillar.
Allow yourself the time and grace to accomplish each goal before moving on to the next one. Expect setbacks and don’t stop trying. Imperfection is a natural part of the process. How many times did you fall down when you were learning to walk? As the saying goes, we only fail when we stop trying.
References
Mitchell, Aaron P et al. “Are Financial Payments From the Pharmaceutical Industry Associated With Physician Prescribing? : A Systematic Review.” Annals of internal medicine vol. 174,3 (2021): 353-361. doi:10.7326/M20-5665
Melissa Newham and Marica Valente. "The cost of influence: How gifts to physicians shape prescriptions and drug costs." Journal of Health Economics, Volume 95 (2024).
American College of Lifestyle Medicine. https://lifestylemedicine.org/
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