Author's note: This column is intended for educational purposes only. It aims to highlight gaps in health knowledge, provide support and empower organizations to guide their members in creating effective health and wellness programs.

Health care professionals are stepping away from the conventional “diagnosis, medication, specialist referral” model for chronic disease treatment. What is emerging is often referred to as whole-person, root-cause or upstream care. This involves a shift from reactive treatments to proactive and continuous care. This is happening because chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension, autoimmune disorders, metabolic syndrome, depression and heart disease are now understood to be heavily influenced by lifestyle, stress, environment, sleep, nutrition, loneliness and behavior patterns — not just isolated biology.

Included in the new health care paradigm are expanded virtual home monitoring, outcome-aligned payment models and local public health initiatives focused on preventive care, health literacy, data modernization and technology. These comprehensive approaches are reshaping how chronic diseases are managed.

Health care professionals leading this movement are:

• Lifestyle medicine focuses on a patient’s lifestyle to identify and address patterns of chronic illness. It is a fast-growing movement in which providers integrate evidence-based interventions into patients' treatment plans, centered on six key pillars: nutrition, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, social connection and avoiding risky substances. Their aim is to prevent, treat and reverse chronic diseases, not just manage symptoms.

• Functional medicine has a personalized, systems-biology approach to chronic disease that is patient-centered. Their focus is on identifying and treating the root cause of disease, whereas conventional medicine is often disease-centered. They view the body as a single interconnected system and use diet, lifestyle and genetic factors to develop an individualized healing plan. This includes assessment of inflammation, gut health, nutritional deficiencies, metabolic dysfunction, toxins and environmental exposure and hormonal imbalance.

• Nurse-led and team-based chronic care models. This multidisciplinary team approach addresses chronic illness and disease as an ongoing process, with patients and families in need of coaching and support, regardless of the treatment they are undergoing. They are informative and supportive, encouraging the patient to adhere to the treatment plan by improving health literacy and building trust.

• Community and population health organizations consist of public health systems, nonprofits and faith-based and civic groups who have the capacity to support those with chronic illnesses. The value of these organizations cannot be overstated, as many people with chronic diseases are associated with limited access to high-quality food, transportation and experience social isolation, stress, limited education and low health literacy. Community organizations can easily fill the gap between need and provision.

What is driving this shift?

Several forces are converging. Sixty percent of Americans now live with at least one chronic disease, and it is beginning earlier in life, often in childhood. It is also driven by a massive demographic shift (an aging population), exploding financial costs and patients reporting they feel overmedicated, unheard, rushed and treated as a diagnosis rather than a person. People want relief from chronic diseases that require constant vigilance, increased medications, frequent tests and more referrals.

Chronic illness should not become a life sentence.

Health can be improved and even restored by making small, consistent changes to daily habits, which improve health, function, aging issues and quality of life, a key component of chronic disease development. Patients and providers are not rejecting conventional medicine; they are voicing a need to integrate prevention, address root causes and treat more than just symptoms.

People deserve better health.

Dr. Cheryl Christy is a Baldwin County resident and registered nurse with nearly 30 years of experience. She holds master's degrees in nursing education and nursing practice and a doctorate in nursing practice. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, Phi Pi Chapter, a certified lay counselor and the author of "Voices for Healthcare," a health care blog.

Read her previous column titled "How lifestyle affects health" on www.GulfCoastMedia.com.