American Board of Lifestyle Medicine
UPDATED ACTUAL Exam Questions and
CORRECT Answers
Lifestyle medicine - CORRECT ANSWER - (1) Evidence-based practice of helping
individuals and families adopt and sustain healthy behaviors that affect health and quality of life.
(2) The use of therapeutic lifestyle changes to treat, prevent and reverse disease - Lifestyle "in"
medicine. When the same lifestyle choices maximize health and prevent disease, this is lifestyle
"is" medicine.
Pioneers of Lifestyle Medicine - CORRECT ANSWER - Hippocrates; Thomas Edison;
Nathan Pritikin; John McDougall; Dean Ornish; Caldwell B Esselstyn Jr; Hans Diehl; WHO
Diet, nutrition, and the prevention of chronic diseases; James Rippe
ACLM - CORRECT ANSWER - Organized in early 2004 by Dr John Kelly; Physician
Core LM Competencies established in 2009, published in JAMA 2010
ABLM - CORRECT ANSWER - Established in 2015, first offering LM2017 conference
Value of Lifestyle Medicine - CORRECT ANSWER - A distinguishing feature is that it
actually saves more than it costs.
Lifestyle Medicine Core competencies - CORRECT ANSWER - Leadership: 1) Promote
healthy behaviors as foundational to medical care, disease prevention, and health promotion - 2)
Seek to practice healthy personal behaviors - 3) Create environments that support healthy
behaviors at school, work and home; Knowledge: 1) Demonstrate a knowledge of the evidence
that specific lifestyle changes can have a positive effect on patients' health outcomes - 2)
Describe ways that physician engagement with patients and families can have a positive effect on
patients' health behaviors; Assessment Skills: 1) Assess the social, psychological and biological
predispositions of patients' behaviors and the resulting health outcomes - 2) Assess patient and
family readiness, willingness, and ability to make health behavior changes - 3) Perform history
and physical exam specific to lifestyle-related health status including lifestyle 'vital signs';
Management Skills: 1) Use nationally recognized practice guidelines to assist patients in self-
managing their health behaviors and lifestyle - 2) Establish effective relationships with patients
, and families to effect and sustain behavioral change - 3) Collaborate with patients and their
families to develop action plans - 4) help patient manage and sustain health lifestyle practices;
Use of Office and Community: 1) Have the ability to practice in an interdisciplinary team of
HCPs - 2) Develop and apply office systems and practices to support lifestyle medical care - 3)
Measure processes and outcomes to improve the quality of lifestyle interventions - 4) Use
appropriate community referral resources that support the implementation of lifestyle medicine
Lifestyle change impacts the "cause of the cause" of disease - CORRECT ANSWER - 1)
beneficially affecting gene expression (epigenetics); 2) Reducing insulin resistance; 3) reducing
chronic systemic inflammation; 4) providing anti-oxidants; 5) more...
Health Risk Assessments - CORRECT ANSWER - Described in Sep 2013 AHRQ
document; CDC source
Scientific evidence about unhealthy behaviors - CORRECT ANSWER - 1) Tobacco -
Cochrane Collaboration, AHA and USPSTF; 2) USPSTF; 3) Interheart Study; 4) interSTROKE
study; 5) Chicago heart Association Detection Project in Industry; 6) Framingham heart study; 7)
Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial Study; 8) Nurses' Health Study; 9) Lyon Diet Heart
Study; 10) Adventist Health Study 2; 11) Nurses Health Study, NHS2 and Health Professionals
Follow Up Study; 12) World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research
Tobacco evidence - CORRECT ANSWER - Strong evidence that tobacco cessation,
increased physical activity and making dietary changes decrease mortality, morbidity, cancer
(Cochrane, AHA, USPSTF)
USPSTF recommended screening - CORRECT ANSWER - tobacco, alcohol and obesity
Interheart study - CORRECT ANSWER - 9 significant risk factors: smoking, lipids, HTN,
obesity, diabetes, diet, physical activity, alcohol and psychosocial factors account for 90% of
PAR of AMI in men and 94% in women: 5 risk factors: smoking, lipids, HTN, diabesity and
obesity accounted for 80%
UPDATED ACTUAL Exam Questions and
CORRECT Answers
Lifestyle medicine - CORRECT ANSWER - (1) Evidence-based practice of helping
individuals and families adopt and sustain healthy behaviors that affect health and quality of life.
(2) The use of therapeutic lifestyle changes to treat, prevent and reverse disease - Lifestyle "in"
medicine. When the same lifestyle choices maximize health and prevent disease, this is lifestyle
"is" medicine.
Pioneers of Lifestyle Medicine - CORRECT ANSWER - Hippocrates; Thomas Edison;
Nathan Pritikin; John McDougall; Dean Ornish; Caldwell B Esselstyn Jr; Hans Diehl; WHO
Diet, nutrition, and the prevention of chronic diseases; James Rippe
ACLM - CORRECT ANSWER - Organized in early 2004 by Dr John Kelly; Physician
Core LM Competencies established in 2009, published in JAMA 2010
ABLM - CORRECT ANSWER - Established in 2015, first offering LM2017 conference
Value of Lifestyle Medicine - CORRECT ANSWER - A distinguishing feature is that it
actually saves more than it costs.
Lifestyle Medicine Core competencies - CORRECT ANSWER - Leadership: 1) Promote
healthy behaviors as foundational to medical care, disease prevention, and health promotion - 2)
Seek to practice healthy personal behaviors - 3) Create environments that support healthy
behaviors at school, work and home; Knowledge: 1) Demonstrate a knowledge of the evidence
that specific lifestyle changes can have a positive effect on patients' health outcomes - 2)
Describe ways that physician engagement with patients and families can have a positive effect on
patients' health behaviors; Assessment Skills: 1) Assess the social, psychological and biological
predispositions of patients' behaviors and the resulting health outcomes - 2) Assess patient and
family readiness, willingness, and ability to make health behavior changes - 3) Perform history
and physical exam specific to lifestyle-related health status including lifestyle 'vital signs';
Management Skills: 1) Use nationally recognized practice guidelines to assist patients in self-
managing their health behaviors and lifestyle - 2) Establish effective relationships with patients
, and families to effect and sustain behavioral change - 3) Collaborate with patients and their
families to develop action plans - 4) help patient manage and sustain health lifestyle practices;
Use of Office and Community: 1) Have the ability to practice in an interdisciplinary team of
HCPs - 2) Develop and apply office systems and practices to support lifestyle medical care - 3)
Measure processes and outcomes to improve the quality of lifestyle interventions - 4) Use
appropriate community referral resources that support the implementation of lifestyle medicine
Lifestyle change impacts the "cause of the cause" of disease - CORRECT ANSWER - 1)
beneficially affecting gene expression (epigenetics); 2) Reducing insulin resistance; 3) reducing
chronic systemic inflammation; 4) providing anti-oxidants; 5) more...
Health Risk Assessments - CORRECT ANSWER - Described in Sep 2013 AHRQ
document; CDC source
Scientific evidence about unhealthy behaviors - CORRECT ANSWER - 1) Tobacco -
Cochrane Collaboration, AHA and USPSTF; 2) USPSTF; 3) Interheart Study; 4) interSTROKE
study; 5) Chicago heart Association Detection Project in Industry; 6) Framingham heart study; 7)
Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial Study; 8) Nurses' Health Study; 9) Lyon Diet Heart
Study; 10) Adventist Health Study 2; 11) Nurses Health Study, NHS2 and Health Professionals
Follow Up Study; 12) World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research
Tobacco evidence - CORRECT ANSWER - Strong evidence that tobacco cessation,
increased physical activity and making dietary changes decrease mortality, morbidity, cancer
(Cochrane, AHA, USPSTF)
USPSTF recommended screening - CORRECT ANSWER - tobacco, alcohol and obesity
Interheart study - CORRECT ANSWER - 9 significant risk factors: smoking, lipids, HTN,
obesity, diabetes, diet, physical activity, alcohol and psychosocial factors account for 90% of
PAR of AMI in men and 94% in women: 5 risk factors: smoking, lipids, HTN, diabesity and
obesity accounted for 80%
