Do you think most chronic diseases can be prevented before they even start? If not, then it is time to firmly establish the mindset that prevention is step one of curing a disease, and Dr. Beth Frates is here to explain how.
Dr. Elizabeth “Beth” Pegg Frates, MD, is a part-time Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Extension School. Over her two decades of teaching, she has received several teaching accolades. She is a respected educator, author, and clinician who has dedicated almost a quarter of a century to the study and practice of Lifestyle Medicine. Dr. Frates’ work has helped transform how health professionals and patients think about well-being.
Her commitment to blending evidence-based science with the art of empowering patients to adopt and sustain healthy lifestyles shines through in her recently published books, The Lifestyle Medicine Pocket Guide and Empowering Behavior Change in Patients; both are resources that are changing the way patients and healthcare professionals think about engagement and health outcomes.
Inspired by her father’s health challenges back in 1986, Dr. Frates developed a passion for empowering individuals to practice healthy lifestyle behaviors before any health setbacks set in and definitely after if there is such a setback. However, her influence extends far beyond individual patients. As President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) from 2022 to 2024, Dr. Frates has led a global network of over 13,000 healthcare professionals working toward preventing disease through lifestyle medicine.
The Lifestyle Medicine Pocket Guide
The Lifestyle Medicine Pocket Guide is Dr. Frates’ evidence-based book that she co-authored with Case Brabham, MD, and Andre M. Dempsey, MD. It perfectly encapsulates Dr. Frates’s philosophy: meeting the patient where the patient is. This easy-to-carry, easily accessible reference tool gives providers practical methods to approach nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress management, social connection, and other lifestyle determinants for their patients. The resource is built on the context of how little changes go a long way in lifestyle medicine.
The book features concise chapters on the key pillars of lifestyle medicine. There is also a dedicated chapter on counseling patients for sustained behavior change. Each chapter explains the pillar’s significance, summarizes research linking unhealthy habits to chronic conditions, and highlights the benefits of healthy behaviors for physical and mental health. It includes practical, high-yield questions for immediate bedside application. Small enough to fit in a white coat pocket, the book was praised by students, residents, and experienced physicians alike by members of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.
The Role of Empowering People to Change
Dr. Frates’s work is focused on coaching people to change behaviors. Using well-known psychological theories like the Transtheoretical Model of Change, Self-Determination Theory, Health Belief Theory, and Self-Efficacy work, healthcare providers can tailor their counseling sessions to the patient’s needs, wants, dreams, fears, and desires. Using motivational interviewing, the COACH Approach (™), and the Frates MOSS method (™), which factors in the patient’s motivators, obstacles, strategies, and strengths, healthcare professionals have the tools to be helpful and inspirational.
The book Dr. Frates co-edited, titled Empowering Behavior Change in Patients, covers all of this material and more. There’s a chapter on lifestyle medicine in this book as well. Medicine would be practiced differently if medical students, medical trainees, and practicing physicians read this book and followed the methods of empowering people to change that are laid out so beautifully in this book.
By incorporating tools like The Lifestyle Medicine Pocket Guide and resources like Empowering Behavior Change in Patients, Dr. Frates champions the idea that a relationship-centered, whole-person approach must be a major focus in patient care and medical education.
“A Healthy Body, Peaceful Mind, and Joyful Heart”
Guided by her mantra, “Working toward a healthy body, peaceful mind, and a joyful heart,” Dr. Frates continues to bridge medical science and everyday wellness.
In September 2024, Dr. Frates was honored with the #IStandWithHer She for She Award at the Women in Medicine Conference. Her initiative, “The Lifestyle Medicine Interest Group” (LMIG), which she founded at Harvard in 2008, has created pathways for integrating lifestyle principles into medical education and practice. Her efforts have inspired students, educators, and institutions worldwide to adopt a preventive and whole-person view of medicine. As the founder and President of the non-profit organization “Paving Wellness,” she continues to inspire individuals to live their best lives.
With The Lifestyle Medicine Pocket Guide and Empowering Behavior Change in Patients, Dr. Frates reaffirms her mission: equipping healthcare professionals to be agents of change, one small step at a time.
Published by Jeremy S.
