Telehealth and Lifestyle Medicine Toolkit

Promoting Wellness

This toolkit is intended to give a broad overview of Lifestyle Medicine and Telehealth for both patients and providers. Feel free to contact us at [email protected] with any questions about this toolkit or with any additional questions.

Telehealth and Lifestyle Medicine Basics

What is Lifestyle Medicine?

Lifestyle Medicine is a growing medical specialty that focuses on preventing, treating, and even reversing chronic diseases by addressing their root causes. Instead of relying solely on medications or procedures, this approach emphasizes evidence-based changes in lifestyle habits. These include adopting a whole-food, plant-predominant diet, engaging in regular physical activity, getting restorative sleep, managing stress effectively, avoiding risky substances, and cultivating positive social connections.

The 6 Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine are included with descriptions below:

Nutrition	Physical Activity	Sleep	Stress Reduction	Social Connection	Risky Substance Avoidance
Professionals recommend a majority whole-food, plant-based diet, emphasizing an importance on adequate fiber and water intake. There are a number of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants in whole foods that contribute to overall health and wellness	Individuals should aim to do about 150 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week, focusing on a wide variety of exercises, including cardio, strength, and flexibility training.	It is important to achieve at least 7-8 hours of restorative sleep each night. This aids in our body’s healing process, memory storage, and growth.	Chronic stress has been shown to be damaging to the body in numerous ways, including causing inflammation, reducing immune function, and disrupting sleep. Reducing stress levels contributes to positive health outcomes.	Social connection is important in terms of emotional and mental support; our connections help to strengthen us and add additional value and purpose to our life.	By avoiding risky substances, such as excess alcohol intake, illicit drugs, and cigarettes, we help reduce the number of toxins that we allow into our bodies, allowing for improved health.

Let’s take a moment to break these pillars down a bit more.

Nutrition

Nutrition serves as one of the most important pillars of Lifestyle Medicine. What and how much we choose to eat has a significant impact on our current and future health, either preventing or contributing to the development of chronic diseases.

Lifestyle Medicine recommends that individuals partake in a majority (80/20) whole food, plant-based diet. This includes significantly reducing high processed and refined foods, as well as sugary drinks. Be sure to include a “rainbow” of foods in your diet; different colored foods have different benefits and healthy compounds. Eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains.

When you first implement whole food, plant-based eating, you may be concerned about protein intake. Rest assured, there are a number of healthy options to meet your daily protein requirements. This can be found in legumes, tofu, lentils, beans, nuts, oats, quinoa, and edamame.

Ultimately, some of these foods may be new to you and your family. Have fun; try new recipes and experiment with your cooking!

Physical Activity

Including physical activity in your daily schedule is crucial to your success in improving your health. Oftentimes, we hear that “sitting is the new smoking,” and that is not far from the truth. Our sedentary lifestyle has done more harm than good.

When it comes to adding activity to our schedule, there are a number of different types that we can participate in:

Aerobic/Endurance
Strength/Resistance
Flexibility
Balance

It is recommended that regardless of the type of activity participate in, you should get a minimum of 30 min/day (150 minutes per week) of moderate activity, and 75 minutes per week of vigorous activity, often considered double the effort. More physical activity will reap more benefits, but ultimately, remember that any amount of exercise is better than none.

Sleep

On average, a U.S. adult sleeps 6 hours 57 minutes per night, with 20% sleeping less than 6 hours. In addition to this, 60 million U.S. adults have frequent difficulty sleeping. Restorative sleep is crucial to our health, our immune system, memory, and other important bodily functions.

Stress Reduction

Stress is something that most of us are familiar with; roughly 70% of PCP visits are due to stress and lifestyle. Oftentimes, stress causes us to make poorer decisions in regards to our health, and can unfortunately be one the underlying causes of depression and generalized anxiety disorder.

Over time, stress can cause fatigue, poor immune function, and poor overall health outcomes, including mental health deterioration.

Social Connection

This is NOT your number of followers or Facebook friends. In fact, social media has been associated with poor sleep, anxiety, depression & low self-esteem. Connection is key in helping us feel like we have a support system and helping guide us through difficult or stressful situations.

Positive, encouraging support can create healthier outcomes; this can be seen through longevity, general health, and biomarkers shown through blood testing.

Risky Substance Avoidance

Tobacco alone costs $300 billion annually in medical costs and lost productivity. This industry also contributes to over 480,000 deaths per year. Over 15 million adults suffer from alcohol use disorder. And in the last decade, drug use has continued to show concerning trends among all individuals.

Avoid risky substances to gain the full benefit of Lifestyle Medicine. By seeking out recovery programs, physician-aided recovery, etc., this is a great way to start your journey to newfound health and longevity.

By guiding patients to make sustainable behavior changes, Lifestyle Medicine shifts healthcare from a reactive model to one that is proactive and empowering.

Benefits of Lifestyle Medicine

The impact of Lifestyle Medicine is profound, especially in the management of chronic conditions such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. Many patients who engage in lifestyle interventions see significant improvements in their health and, in some cases, can reduce or discontinue medications altogether. Lifestyle Medicine has also been shown to help reduce risk for developing chronic diseases, including cancer.

Beyond disease reversal, Lifestyle Medicine enhances overall quality of life. Patients often report increased energy, improved mood, better sleep, and greater daily functioning. These benefits not only help individuals thrive but also reduce long-term healthcare costs through fewer hospital visits, reduced medication use, and lower rates of complications.

Perhaps most importantly, Lifestyle Medicine places patients at the center of their care, encouraging active participation and fostering a sense of agency in their health journey.

Telehealth and Lifestyle Medicine

Telehealth offers a natural complement to the practice of Lifestyle Medicine. The ability to deliver care remotely means that lifestyle interventions can be more consistent, more convenient, and more accessible—especially for patients who face barriers to in-person visits such as geographic distance, mobility limitations, or time constraints.

Through telehealth, providers can maintain frequent contact with patients, which is essential for supporting behavior change. This virtual model enables a collaborative, team-based approach that may include physicians, dietitians, health coaches, psychologists, and other professionals working together to guide patients in real time. Group visits can also be conducted remotely, fostering a sense of community and shared motivation among participants.

Examples of Telehealth Use for Lifestyle Medicine

In practice, telehealth can support Lifestyle Medicine in diverse and impactful ways. For example, nutrition counseling sessions can be delivered through video conferencing, allowing dietitians to educate patients and review their eating habits from the comfort of their homes. Similarly, fitness coaching can be adapted for virtual settings, with exercise specialists guiding patients through personalized activity plans tailored to their abilities and goals.

Mental and emotional well-being, a core aspect of Lifestyle Medicine, is also well-suited for telehealth. Therapists and behavioral health professionals can help patients develop tools for stress management, mindfulness, and emotional regulation through regular online sessions. Remote monitoring devices and mobile health apps further extend the reach of care, allowing clinicians to track metrics such as sleep, physical activity, and vital signs—and adjust treatment plans accordingly.

Group-based care is another exciting area of growth. Telehealth platforms make it easier to conduct virtual group visits, such as diabetes prevention programs or heart health classes, creating a supportive environment where patients can share experiences and learn together. Additionally, telehealth would allow for virtual implementation of certain Food As Medicine courses, including cooking demonstrations. This could be especially helpful and effective in areas where transportation may act as a barrier for access to care.

Reimbursement of Telehealth for Lifestyle Medicine

As telehealth services become more mainstream, reimbursement opportunities are expanding, though they still vary by payer and region. Medicare, Medicaid, and many commercial insurers now reimburse for several components of Lifestyle Medicine when delivered via telehealth, including medical nutrition therapy, diabetes prevention programs, and behavioral counseling for cardiovascular risk reduction.

Providers can bill using standard telehealth evaluation and management (E/M) codes, as well as codes for behavioral health integration, remote physiological monitoring, and preventive counseling. However, challenges remain. Reimbursement policies are not always consistent across states or insurers, and services such as health coaching may not yet be covered independently under many plans.

Still, with the growing emphasis on value-based care and preventive health, the outlook for reimbursement continues to improve, especially as evidence of cost savings and improved outcomes continues to build.

The Future of Lifestyle Medicine and Telehealth

The future of Lifestyle Medicine and telehealth is promising and innovative. We can expect a broader integration of digital tools, such as wearable devices and artificial intelligence, to help personalize care and monitor progress in real time. Telehealth platforms will likely evolve to support more comprehensive team-based care, with easier access to a range of providers including health coaches, exercise physiologists, and mental health professionals.

Virtual group visits and community-based programs will also become more common, supporting both social connection and provider efficiency. As patient demand for holistic, preventive care increases, telehealth-enabled Lifestyle Medicine will play a crucial role in reshaping the healthcare landscape—making it more accessible, proactive, and person-centered.

This toolkit is intended to be informational, not to guide care or coverage decisions. For specific questions, we recommend you contact your physician or insurance provider.

Last Updated June, 2025