About Us
We are a non-profit coalition of lifestyle medicine organizations in Asia that promotes evidence-based approaches to prevent, treat, and reverse lifestyle-related diseases and enhance health and well-being.
The Asian Lifestyle Medicine Council (ALMC) is a non-profit coalition uniting lifestyle medicine organizations across South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. Rooted in the definition of lifestyle medicine, it employs evidence-based therapeutic approaches to address lifestyle-related diseases and enhance overall health. ALMC envisions an Asia where lifestyle medicine serves as the foundation of healthcare, contributing to positive health outcomes for diverse populations.
Our Vision
An Asia with an established, sustainable practice of evidence-based lifestyle medicine improving positive health outcomes for its diverse populations with lifestyle medicine as the foundation of healthcare.
Our Mission
Provision of regional leadership and a platform for collaboration among the lifestyle medicine societies in Asia to create policies and procedures, define industry standards, promote education and research, develop and share resources, and facilitate communications.
What We Do
Provide a platform to establish industry standards, enable mechanisms for quality assurance, and develop frameworks required for sustainable growth of the lifestyle medicine discipline in Asia.
Establish and promote the best practices and introduce the principles and guidelines related to the practice of evidence-based lifestyle medicine in Asia.
Build strong local, regional, and international collaborations, including academic institutions, for the purpose of clinical and public health research in lifestyle medicine.
Provide accredited undergraduate and postgraduate opportunities for learning, training, and knowledge sharing in lifestyle medicine in Asia.
Facilitate communications between lifestyle medicine organisations in Asia for the purpose of meaningful and outcome-oriented collaborations such as facilitating the growth of neighbouring country organisations, hosting events, etc.
Advocate for policy integration of evidence-based lifestyle medicine principles into national healthcare policies across Asia.
Our Organisation
The council's mission is to provide regional leadership, fostering collaboration among Asian lifestyle medicine societies. ALMC aims to develop policies, industry standards, and educational resources, facilitating communication and research initiatives. It aspires to establish and promote best practices, incorporating evidence-based principles into lifestyle medicine across the region. ALMC also seeks to build strong collaborations with academic institutions, fostering clinical and public health research in lifestyle medicine.
ALMC's core objectives include creating industry standards, ensuring quality assurance, and developing frameworks to sustain the discipline's growth in Asia. Furthermore, the council aims to introduce best practices, guidelines, and principles for evidence-based lifestyle medicine, emphasizing the importance of collaboration with neighboring countries and academic institutions.
The ALMC places a strong emphasis on education, aiming to provide accredited learning opportunities in lifestyle medicine at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. By facilitating communication among lifestyle medicine organizations in Asia, ALMC seeks meaningful collaborations, including supporting the growth of neighboring country organizations and hosting events that foster knowledge exchange and professional development.
Lifestyle Medicine
Lifestyle medicine collates sound scientific evidence from diverse medical fields to redefine the approach to treating and reversing lifestyle-related diseases (noncommunicable diseases) and promoting health in clinical settings. Lifestyle medicine centers around clinical settings, filling a significant gap in the global efforts to address the rising trends of lifestyle-related diseases. The current definitions of lifestyle medicine call for the prevention, management, and reversal of lifestyle-related diseases through its six (6) pillars with a patient-centered approach - whole-food, plant-based eating patterns, regular physical activity, restorative sleep and sleep hygiene, stress management, positive social connections, and avoiding harmful substance use. This approach enables an individual to develop and sustain a healthy lifestyle in the long run. Incorporating these ideals into an economically viable clinical practice could arguably present the best approach to face the ongoing chronic disease epidemic as health professionals engaged in direct patient care.
Board of Directors
Mechelle A. Palma
Secretary, Board of Directors | Chair, Education Committee
Dr. Mechelle Acero Palma is a family medicine physician, working for the past 15 years. She has been an associate professor at the Adventist University of the Philippines College of Health and College of Medicine. Dr. Palma has been active as a resource person and training program developer for various private and public organizations advocating healthy lifestyles since 2008.
As one of the pioneering certified lifestyle medicine physicians, she focused on the advancement of lifestyle medicine by developing the Competency Course and Specialty Board Examination, reorganizing the Society, and leading its accreditation as an Affiliate Specialty Society of the Philippine Medical Association under the division of the Philippine Academy of Family Physicians.
Dr. Palma is the president of the Philippine College of Lifestyle Medicine, the founder of Culinary Medicine Asia with over 2000 local and international trainees, and an active member of the PAFP Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) team. She is also one of the authors of the Lifestyle Medicine Competencies for the foundational and intensivist category.
Mohammad Zia Abbas
Member of the Board of Directors
Dr. Mohammad Zia Abbas is an MD in Internal Medicine from the University of Health Sciences Antigua School of Medicine. He completed his internal medicine residency at Cook County and Norwegian American Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.
He completed his lifestyle medicine postgraduate course at Ripha International University, Islamabad. Dr. Abbas started practicing lifestyle medicine in 2021, and he currently practices internal medicine and works as a lifestyle coach. In addition, he is an executive member of the Pakistan Association of Lifestyle medicine (PALM) and the deputy director of LM Events. He is also the associate country head for Lifestyle Medicine Global Alliance (LMGA).
Dr. Abbas has had a dynamic career in the healthcare industry in the US, the Middle East, and Pakistan. He was a consultant for Johnson & Johnson and Smiths Medical for about 22 years, responsible for training, education, and development. Dr. Abbas has experience in clinical education, especially in angioplasty, tracheostomy, and temperature management.
Email :mzabbas110@gmail.com
Rabbanie Tariq
Member of the Board of Directors
Dr. Rabbanie Tariq, MBBS, MD, FRSPH(UK), IPFPH(UK), DipIBLM is a preventive and public health specialist with a special interest in Lifestyle Medicine. He is actively involved in inculcating the principles of Lifestyle Medicine nationally and globally. Currently, Dr. Rabbanie is the President (National) of the Indian Society of Lifestyle Medicine. He has also been a guest faculty at various Institutions imparting public health and preventive medicine, epidemiology, and lifestyle medicine. He has worked as the external monitor for the World Health Organization.
His research over the past 4 years has focused on non-communicable diseases (NCDs), public health innovations, nutrition, sleep hygiene, vaccination, occupational health, and lifestyle medicine technology. Dr. Rabbanie has published in multiple peer-reviewed tier-one journals. His main research interest is in mHealth and digital health. In addition, Dr. Rabbanie has authored 5 book chapters and written a textbook on lifestyle medicine. He is also the principal investigator of clinical trials related to NCDs and lifestyle medicine. He serves as an editorial board member of medical journals, including PLoS.
Samandika Saparamadu
President, Asian Lifestyle Medicine Council | Member of the Board of Directors
Samandika Saparamadu, MBBS, DipIBLM, is a Sri Lankan primary care and lifestyle medicine physician. He obtained his bachelor's in medicine and surgery from the Faculty of Medicine, Colombo. He served Singapore's public healthcare system after his medical internship at the National University Singapore Hospital. Dr. Saparamadu holds full registration with the Singapore Medical Council and is now a Master of Public Health candidate and a public health economics student at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health as a Dean's Scholar.
Dr. Saparamadu is a medical researcher with experience in chronic disease epidemiology, health promotion, and health equity. His research has been published in tier one/two journals. He is also an editorial board member and invited reviewer for reputed medical journals. Moreover, he is the president of the Sri Lankan Society of Lifestyle Medicine, an executive board member of the World Lifestyle Medicine Organisation in Geneva, and a Health Policy Institute Fellow at the Maryland General Assembly, United States.
Email :samandika@icloud.com
Shagufta Feroz
Member of the Board of Directors
Dr. Shagufta Feroz is a clinician specializing in Family Medicine. She has certifications in Lifestyle Medicine, Physician Leadership, and Positive Psychology from Harvard University, USA. She is also a Diplomat of the International Board of Lifestyle Medicine. She is a fellow of the University of Arizona in Integrative Medicine. She has also completed two distance learning doctorates of philosophy in Holistic Nutrition and Integrative Medicine from Clayton College of Natural Health and Quantum University for Integrative Medicine, USA.
Her “SWIPE for HEALTH” program (previously called Synchronized Lifestyle Modification-SLP) does disease prevention, management, and reversal. This program is based on scientific principles of Circadian Rhythms and their role in health and disease. Knowledge of Circadian Rhythms helps in writing Prescriptions for a Personalised Lifestyle Modification Program. Her book titled ‘Living as Nature Intended” explains the scientific background of her program at length and offers comprehensive guidelines for incorporating SWIPE for HEALTH for various aspects of human health. She has been the Founding President of the Pakistan Association of Lifestyle Medicine since 2017 and the Founder of the Happiness Movement in Pakistan. Dr. Shagufta is an Adjunct Professor at the Health Sciences Academy and the Director of RIPHAH Institute of Lifestyle Medicine, RIPHAH University.
Email :drsferoz@gmail.com
Sheela Nambiar
Member of the Board of Directors | Chair, Membership Committee
Dr. Sheela Nambiar, MBBS, MD, is a practicing obstetrician/gynecologist and lifestyle medicine physician with 3 decades of clinical experience. Dr. Nambiar divides her time between Chennai and the Nilgiris in South India. She is also a certified fitness consultant from the National Association of Fitness Certification, USA. As one of the founders of the Indian Society of Lifestyle Medicine (ISLM), she has held the office of Secretary (2018-2020) and President (2020-2022). During this time, she has built strong relations for ISLM with ACLM, BSLM, PALM, LMGA, and other lifestyle medicine organizations across the globe.
Dr. Nambiar is on the editorial board of the Lifestyle Medicine Journal, an Advisory Board member of the Lifestyle Medicine Global Alliance (LMGA), and a Council member of the Global Positive Health Institute (GPHI). She is passionate about women's health. Dr. Nambiar has published three books on fitness and well-being for women. She conducts workshops and talks at local, national, and international conferences/organizations. Her main areas of interest are fitness and positive psychology.
Teddy TJ Xing
Member of the Board of Directors
Teddy TJ Xing, the founder of China Lifestyle Medicine Alliance, has been working to promote the Lifestyle Medicine concept in China since 2013 after attending the Harvard Lifestyle Medicine Conference as a candidate student of Harvard Graduate School at the time.
Teddy holds a degree in life science from the University of British Columbia and worked at Pfizer and Excel Pharma as a research specialist and Asia Pacific Director. She is also an American Council of Exercise certified trainer and co-founded FitFuture to help support professional trainers in China to learn and upgrade their expertise.
Aside from the health sector, she is also the founder of TeachFuture, which provides innovative training and curriculum to schools and families in China via Project-based Learning. Teddy started the CLMA organization in 2020 and has successfully translated the lifestyle medicine learning materials and set up the platforms for professionals to learn, interact, and be certified in lifestyle medicine.
Email :teddyx@vip.163.com
ALMC Committees
The ALMC committees, comprising Education, Research and Development, Outreach, and Membership, play pivotal roles in advancing the organization's mission. The Education, Research, and Development Committee focuses on shaping ALMC's stance...
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