Transcultural applications to lifestyle medicine

Abstract

The prevalence of chronic disease is not a generic American health-care problem. Rather, chronic disease expression varies among different cultures outside the USA as well as within the USA among a diverse population of multicultural Americans. Health-care professionals must act without bias in a sensitive and appropriate manner when caring for patients from different cultures. The principles of lifestyle medicine must therefore be adapted to optimize implementation and success. Variables in transcultural adaptation range from biological to environmental factors. These include genetic and epigenetic interactions, nutrition (eating patterns, food policy, food politics, and food sourcing), physical activity, socio-economic, religious and spiritual, and other attitudes and behaviors. There is a great need to incorporate transcultural adaptation to clinical practice, medical education, and scientific research to advance this necessary component of effective lifestyle medicine. Case studies are provided for the Latino and Asian Indian cultures in the USA.