Doha – August 16, 2026: Researchers from the Institute for Population Health (IPH) at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q), in collaboration with global lifestyle medicine experts, have published a white paper calling for the urgent integration of lifestyle medicine into healthcare systems to help reduce the growing burden of chronic diseases.
Lifestyle medicine (LM) is an evidence-based discipline focused on preventing, managing, and reversing non-communicable diseases (NCDs) through healthy lifestyle behaviors, including healthy nutrition, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, positive social connections, and avoiding risky substances.
The white paper builds on the recommendations outlined in the Doha Declaration on LM, which was reached at a gathering hosted by the IPH in 2024 and adopted by 26 global LM experts. Recognizing LM’s potential to reshape clinical practice and inform public health policy, the Doha Declaration advocates for the urgent and systematic integration of LM into healthcare systems worldwide.
The paper explores the implications of LM for global health outcomes, economic sustainability, and population wellbeing. It highlights the strategic importance of including LM in health professions education, clinical guidelines, and health governance frameworks. It also identifies key challenges to implementation and proposes actionable solutions to advance LM as a cornerstone of equitable and sustainable healthcare delivery worldwide.
NCDs include major global health concerns such as heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, chronic respiratory disease, cancer, and diabetes. These conditions are widespread and are collectively responsible for 70 percent of deaths and 63 percent of disability-adjusted life years globally, placing a huge economic burden on healthcare systems, with a cumulative global cost projected to reach between $30 trillion and $47 trillion between 2011 and 2030.
The paper highlights that 80 percent of all NCDs can be prevented and that evidence shows that LM plays a significant role in improving health outcomes: for instance, adherence to LM principles can prevent 80 percent of heart disease cases and 90 percent of type 2 diabetes cases. These two conditions together contribute to a large proportion of morbidity and mortality worldwide.
The paper was authored by WCM-Q’s Dr. Ravinder Mamtani, professor of population health sciences, vice dean for population health and lifestyle medicine, and professor of medicine at the Center for Global Health; Dr. Sohaila Cheema, associate professor of clinical population health sciences and assistant dean for the IPH; and Dr. Amit Abraham, assistant professor of clinical population health sciences and assistant director of the IPH.
International contributing authors representing global lifestyle medicine organizations include Amy Mechley from the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine and the International Board of Lifestyle Medicine, Temescal Valley, CA, U.S.; Agnese Lapsa-Lešinske of the Lifestyle Medicine Global Alliance, Vilnius, Lithuania; Emanuela Mercore Huțanu of the Romanian Society of Lifestyle Medicine, Iași, Romania; Jenny Sunghyun Lee of the Korean College of Lifestyle Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Sandra Daniela Lanza Sagardia of the Chilean Society of Lifestyle Medicine (Sociedad Chilena de Medicina del Estilo De Vida), Universidad Andrés Bello, Concón, Chile; Shagufta Feroz of the Pakistan Association of Lifestyle Medicine, Riphah International University, Islamabad, Pakistan; and Sivaneswaran Poobalasingam of the Malaysian Society of Lifestyle Medicine, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Building on the recommendations of the Doha Declaration on LM, the white paper highlights that LM can reduce the growing burden of NCDs. However, the paper stresses that for LM to make a meaningful impact, it needs to be incorporated into healthcare systems and healthcare professional educational programs and supported by policies that align with local cultures, resources, and practices. These combined efforts can help address unhealthy behaviors and the underlying factors that influence disease risk and health outcomes.