Lifestyle Medicine and Otolaryngology: Embracing the Future

Abstract

Lifestyle medicine is a relatively new specialty that focuses on behavior change to prevent, treat, and reverse chronic disease and promote wellness. It is relevant to any medical or surgical field that deals with noninfectious chronic disease and to any individual or community pursuing health and wellness. Lifestyle medicine offers evidence-based interventions and tools to foster wellness and resiliency in ourselves and our patients. This commentary gives a brief background of lifestyle medicine and how embracing the discipline could benefit the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and the field of otolaryngology overall. Specifically, we describe opportunities to improve patient health, promote personal wellness, combat burnout, and foster unity among otolaryngology subspeciality societies.