Psychosocial Determinants of Chronic Disease: Implications for Lifestyle Medicine

Abstract

We have previously identified a number of “determinants” of chronic disease, using the acronym NASTIE ODOURS. These have been given the collective term “anthropogens,” in this journal and other publications, to help direct the management of modern chronic ailments to a monocausal focus, akin to that afforded infectious diseases by the “germ theory.” We suggested the acronym NASTIE ODOURS as a starting point for a taxonomy of lifestyle medicine determinants. In the current article, we add 3, less quantifiable, but currently increasingly more important psychosocial experiences to these: Lack of Meaning, Alienation, and Loss of culture, changing the previous acronym to NASTIE MAL ODOURS. As with other determinants, all have accumulating evidence of an underlying low-grade, systemic, inflammatory physiological base (“metaflammation”), but with the need for further research to solidify these findings.