The Lifestyle Medicine Toolbox
The Lifestyle Medicine Toolbox
Mind-Body Approaches for Health Promotion
This holistic guide provides an integrative toolbox on how healthcare and fitness professionals can promote lifestyle medicine with their clients. Its clinical and evidence-informed approach focuses on the six primary lifestyle medicine factors: nutrition, exercise, sleep hygiene, stress management, risky substance use, and social connectedness. Each factor is enriched with a variety of strategies and advice including anti-inflammatory recipes, self-guided visualisation, tips on how to break bad habits, sustainable fitness, and mind-body exercises.
Based on the author’s 30+ years of experience as a trained physical therapist treating musculoskeletal conditions, this book’s nonpharmacological and nonsurgical focus allows clients to feel empowered in taking charge of their health through a plethora of resources and techniques. It provides clear, actionable steps and real-world examples in order to nurture sustainable changes that promote long-term health and healing.
I was pleasantly surprised by the abundance of information regarding wellness, nutrition and exercise. The author shows the importance of understanding one’s own chemistry and how nutrition plays a vital role in dealing with health issues. This also plays an important role in mental health. This book has so many foundational pillars surrounding wellness and nutrition which makes for a great learning resource. As a mental health professional I will definitely endorse this project and its positive impact on mental health!
The Lifestyle Medicine Toolbox is a ground-breaking book that equips healthcare and wellness professionals with essential knowledge and tools to seamlessly integrate lifestyle medicine into patient care. This comprehensive resource not only provides evidence-based strategies to enhance patient care for optimal health but also emphasizes self-care practices. I highly recommend this book to every healthcare and wellness professional, as it revolutionizes patient care and transforms the way we view our own well-being. This book is a call to action for a more enlightened and compassionate approach to healthcare - a must-read for anyone committed to making a genuine difference in our patient’s lives.
We can all classify ourselves as caregivers, whether we are focused on helping others or finding tools and strategies to help ourselves stay active and healthy. Ziya Altug presents both scientifically-supported lifestyle medicine guidelines, as well as feasible daily practices to keep a sharp focus on well-being. The user-friendly self-care handouts are great conversation starters for your patients/clients, and offer a gentle reminder that you also have to 'take care of yourself, before you can care for others'. As a military veteran, and Physiotherapist, I innately understand the importance of getting back to the basics of healthy food, regular exercise, stress management, good sleep hygiene and nurturing strong social connections. What I appreciate about this book is the introduction to new topics (to me) of nature-based therapies such as natural light, soothing sounds, nature walks, together with expressive therapies and healing arts. Ziya provides a holistic, inclusive and accessible lifestyle medicine approaches for health recovery and growth, that do not involve medication or surgery. The Lifestyle Medicine Toolbox is a must-have book on your shelf if you are serious about sustainable health.
What sets this book apart is the author’s dedicated exploration of often overlooked areas in rehabilitation and patient management. He not only highlights their significance but also provides clear guidance on the integration into patient-centered care. The book offers practical examples that can be applied immediately, offering an abundance of options and ideas for tailoring prescriptions to each patient’s unique needs, interests, availability, and resources. Whether you’re a newcomer to lifestyle medicine or a seasoned practitioner seeking fresh ideas to enrich your toolkit, this book is an invaluable resource. It’s a must-read that will leave you equipped to make a positive impact on both your own life and the lives of your patients.
Modern healthcare can feel like a fast-paced, numbers-driven pursuit where the patient/provider relationship and quality of care is an afterthought. This book not only provides an alternative approach to patient care but challenges us as healthcare providers to be more mindful and purposeful in our interactions with our patients, and more caring toward ourselves. The Lifestyle Medicine Toolbox provides all health and wellness provides with a beautiful set of practical tools and clinical wisdom to enhance our practice. In this era of medical productivity, Ziya Altug’s book is a breath of fresh air, which trumpets humble yet effective strategies to treat the entire person using approachable, heart-lead, and evidence-based information. This is the skillset modern healthcare needs to bring about true and honest healing to our patients and the healthcare system as a whole.
From the minute I picked up this book, I knew it was the perfect addition to my library of lifestyle medicine texts. Just scanning the Contents section impressed me - the logical outline, superb organization, and actual tools to use with patients or clients in real time! This book fills a gap not only for clinicians providing lifestyle and integrative medicine, but also for the patients and clients on the receiving end. It is a comprehensive text, yet distills important information into key concepts, clinical tips, and self-care patient handouts. I love the incorporation of mind-body practices and expanding concepts within lifestyle medicine such as Culinary Medicine and my personal favorite, Nature-Based Therapies. This is an essential evidence-based text for any healthcare clinician’s bookshelf!
Ziya "Z" Altug, PT, DPT, MS, OCS, is a board-certified doctor of physical therapy. He has over three decades’ of clinical experience in treating musculoskeletal conditions. Z uses integrative and lifestyle medicine to help patients and clients improve their well-being and manage pain. He is the author of three books and a long-standing member of the American Physical Therapy Association and the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. Z runs a number of courses on Physiopedia Plus and is based in Los Angeles.
