Advanced Lifestyle Medicine

Audience: Health and wellness professionals
Method: Online
Duration: 8 weeks
Graduate application: Not required
College Credits: See Course Credit section below
Continuing Education Units: 30
Cost: $550

What is lifestyle medicine?

Lifestyle medicine is the use of healthy lifestyle behaviors to prevent and treat chronic diseases. In this course, students will consider comprehensively applying lifestyle medicine strategies to healthy individuals, to those with chronic diseases and as part of a self-care program. Students will also consider lifestyle medicine as its own medical explanatory framework for disease, illness and health.

Lifestyle medicine course objectives

By the end of this class, students will be able to:

• Compare and contrast lifestyle medicine and whole person health  
• Recall the current recommendations for physical activity, healthy eating, sleep and alcohol consumption 
• Describe the effects that lifestyle medicine can have on the prevention, management and reversal of certain chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity and heart disease
• Describe lifestyle medicine as its own medical explanatory framework for disease, illness and health
• Design and implement a self-care program

COURSE CREDIT AND CE

This CE course is approved by NBHWC for 30 continuing education units.

This is one of the courses within the Graduate Certificate in Lifestyle Medicine and the Master of Science in Integrative Health and Wellness. Individuals who complete this course and then enroll in the certificate or degree program may also be eligible for up to two hours of awarded credit toward their degree or certificate. In order to apply credits for this course to a degree or certificate program, you will be required to pay the difference in cost between the CE course and tuition.

REQUIRED MATERIALS

Participants will need to purchase three books for this course:

• “Lifestyle Medicine for Chronic Diseases: An Introduction to the Evidence-Based Approach of Managing Chronic Diseases with Lifestyle Therapeutics, Second Edition” by Thomas L. Lenz, 2018. ISBN-13: 978-0-35923-972-6.
• “Chronically American: Our Evolution Towards Chronic Illness and Our Radical Way Forward” by Thomas L. Lenz, 2020. ISBN: 978-1-79479-004-9 (paperback), ISBN: 978-1-79479-021-6 (e-book).
• “The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer” by Elizabeth Blackburn and Elissa Epel, 2017. ISBN-10: 1455587974, ISBN-13: 978-1455587971.

Meet your course instructor

This course is led by Tom Lenz, PharmD. Lenz is a professor at Creighton University in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies. A Creighton graduate, Lenz has taught at Creighton since 2001. His research and scholarship focus on self-care, employee well-being, lifestyle medicine, disease prevention, health promotion and online learning. He has authored a number of articles and several books, including “Lifestyle Medicine for Chronic Diseases.”

On his teaching philosophy, Lenz says, “After many years of working one-on-one with people to help guide them toward health and well-being, I have realized that each person’s circumstances and life journey is truly unique unto themselves, and yet we all share curiously similar commonalities. This realization has driven my research and teaching in recent years. My area of exploration and teaching centers on the core elements that lead to personal and collective well-being.” When he’s not teaching Lenz enjoys spending time with family outdoors doing activities like swimming, biking, running and water sports.

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