The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) has published the first clinical practice guideline to put lifestyle at the cutting edge of type 2 care on diabetes and prediabetes. “”Lifestyle interventions for the treatment and remission of type 2 diabetes and prediabetes in adults,“” Offers a complete roadmap and based on evidence to clinicians in order to effectively incorporate therapeutic interventions on lifestyle behavior as a pillar of treatment, while completing existing guidelines for diabetes, many of which mention the lifestyle in the context of care but often do not provide details. The guideline was published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine.
The directive deals with a critical and growing public health crisis because more than half of American adults suffer from diabetes or prediabetes, which causes billions of annual health care costs. A unique aspect of the directive is clear and usable recommendations to make the change in lifestyle, including strategies to assess basic life habits, change in change and health coaching, and a framework for the depression of drugs after successful lifestyle interventions.
The directive contains more 25 Original information documents as well as resources that can be used by health care providers and their patients to facilitate the incorporation of lifestyle medicine in type 2 care. The objective of the directive is to allow clinicians and individuals by lifestyle and practices to help achieve blood sugar Type 2 diabetes management And to prevent the progression of prediabetes or gestational diabetes in real diabetes type 2.
“Many clinical practice guidelines recognize the importance of lifestyle factors as the first treatment consideration, but do not lack to provide clinicians with the practical tools necessary to prescribe changes in lasting lifestyle,” said the endocrinologist and author of Mahima Gulati, MD, Dipablm, Faclm guidelines. “The new directive is the first to provide detailed and explicit lifestyle changes strategies to treat prediabetes and type 2 diabetes with the clinical objective of achieving remission. These strategies apply not only to this single guideline, but will also support other existing clinical practice guidelines for chronic diseases that recommend changes in lifestyle behavior.”
The organizations which approved the directive are the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology, the Obesity Medicine Association, the American Academy of Physician Associates, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, the American College of Clinical Pharmacology, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the association of Diabetes Care & Education Specialist and National Board of Health and Wellness Coaches. It was appointed with an “value affirmation” of the American Academy of Family Physicians and is supported by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
An increasing set of research shows how lifestyle changes can delay or prevent type 2 diabetes and, in some cases, can obtain a remission so that drugs can potentially be reduced or eliminated. However, life-style behavior interventions remain underused and no previous clinical practice directive has been explicitly focused on lifestyle interventions and behavioral change as an essential treatment for type 2 diabetes and prediabetes. In addition, the ACLM directive is the first to adapt the nutritional recommendations to the specific objective of an individual with type 2 or at risk diabetes, such as remission, management or prevention (prediabetes or gestational diabetes).
The new directive prioritizes the six pillars of nutrition of-care–predominant life medicine, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, connectivity and avoidance of risky substances-as key components of the basics of processing and remission strategies. The contribution of the guideline was collected in collaboration with a large coalition of experts in fields which included primary care, endocrinology, cardiology, psychiatrySleep medicine, nursing, diabetes and dietetics education.
ACLM directives are not intended to replace existing diabetes management strategies, but rather to complete them by providing a plan based on evidence for the way in which lifestyle interventions can be effectively implemented. The directive and summary of the clear support language provide a fully usable framework to assess, prescribe and implement lifestyle changes in a practical and lasting way for patients and clinicians. “”
Richard Rosenfeld, MD, MPH, MBA, Director of ACLM and quality and authority directives directives
Due to its growing prevalence and its enormous impact on health, type 2 diabetes is considered to be the decisive disease of the 21st century. More than 38 million people suffer from diabetes, the vast majority of these cases being type 2 diabetes, and 97.6 million additional people have a prediabetes and are at risk of progressing to type 2. The directive addresses these two populations. Diabetes represents $ 413 billion in annual health care expenses in the United States while prediabetes represents $ 43 billion. By 2050, more than 1.3 billion people worldwide should be Live with diabetes At a cost of 1.5 billion of dollars per year.
The new directive is based on the declaration of consensus of ACLM experts in 2022 to help clinicians to carry out type 2 diabetes by using the diet as a main intervention and the “burden of type 2 diabetes”, which establishes that patients have the right to be informed of all treatment options, including change in lifestyle behavior. ACLM also offers a “Type 2 Diabetes remission certificate” course which allows clinicians to use intensive lifestyle medicine therapies based on evidence to send type 2 diabetes in reversal remission and resistance to insulin.
“The publication of the new clinical practice directive is a marked moment for ACLM and for all clinicians involved in the treatment and prevention of type 2 diabetes,” said family author, family doctor and member of the ACLM board of directors, Meagan Grega, MD, Fallm, Dipablm. “He raises the intervention of the lifestyle behavior of a peripheral recommendation to a central approach to diabetes care. This directive changes the situation in the way we treat one of the most common and debilitating chronic diseases of our time.”
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Journal reference:
Rosenfeld, RM, and al. (2025). Lifestyle interventions for the treatment and remission of type 2 diabetes and prediabetes in adults: a clinical practice directive of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. DOI.org/10.1177/155982762513254888.