It’s Never Too Late: Lifestyle Medicine and Aging Well
6 Mins Read
Watch the full interview here
Most of us grew up thinking of the doctor’s office as the place you go when something is wrong. You describe the problem, get a prescription, and head home. But what if your physician spent just as much time helping you keep things from going wrong in the first place?
That’s the heart of lifestyle medicine, and I recently sat down with Dr. Brad Moore, a board-certified lifestyle medicine physician, to talk about what it is, why it matters for older adults, and how any of us can start weaving it into our daily lives.
From Academic Medicine to “Lifestyle First” Care
Dr. Moore has practiced medicine in Washington for 35 years. After training in internal medicine in Philadelphia, he came to D.C. for a primary care fellowship and joined the faculty at George Washington University, where he practiced academic primary care, taught in the medical school and residency program, and taught prevention in the School of Public Health.
About 10 years ago, he discovered lifestyle medicine, and he says it transformed his practice. He began using it with patients at GW and went on to launch a residency training program there to teach residents lifestyle medicine alongside internal medicine.
In April 2026, Dr. Moore moved to Complete Concierge Care, a concierge practice on the campus of Sibley Hospital. There he offers lifestyle-first primary care, as well as lifestyle medicine consultations for patients who already have a primary care doctor.
What Is Lifestyle Medicine?
“Lifestyle medicine is not a new concept,” Dr. Moore explained. “It’s the idea that your lifestyle matters.”
What is new is its recognition as a medical specialty. Board certification in lifestyle medicine was established in 2018, and Dr. Moore earned his in 2019. It’s an evidence-based practice built around six pillars:
- Diet
- Exercise and physical activity
- Sleep
- Managing stress
- Social connection and healthy relationships
- Avoiding harmful substances
The goal, he says, is to use these pillars not only to prevent chronic disease but also to treat it, “with the goal of not just living longer, but living better.”
On that last pillar, Dr. Moore noted that harmful substances traditionally mean tobacco and alcohol, but he believes we increasingly need to think about things like microplastics and other environmental exposures as well.
Diet: More Important Than We Realize
We started with diet, a topic close to my heart. Dr. Moore and I are both fans of a more plant-based way of eating, and I shared a personal discovery: my smartwatch sleep score improves noticeably when I give my body about three hours to digest before bed. If I eat dinner at 5:00 p.m. and stick to water afterward, I sleep better.
Dr. Moore put diet’s importance in sharp perspective. Cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks and strokes, is the leading cause of death in the U.S. But when you look at what drives it, he says, diet is the leading underlying cause of death, ahead of smoking and infectious disease.
“It’s a problem of what we’re eating and what we’re not eating,” he said. We eat too much processed food, sodium, and saturated fat, and not enough fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
Getting Upstream: Catching Problems Before They Start
So why should a physician be guiding diet, exercise, sleep, and friendships, areas we don’t usually associate with a doctor’s visit?
Dr. Moore believes our medical system has become very reactive. “We wait for something to go wrong and then we look for the right pharmaceutical bandaid to patch the leak,” he said. Lifestyle medicine trained him to work further upstream.
He used diabetes as an example. Doctors diagnose diabetes when blood sugar crosses a certain threshold, and pre-diabetes when it’s elevated but not quite there. But for as long as a decade before blood sugar rises, it’s often possible to detect that the body isn’t processing sugar well, a condition called insulin resistance. Caught at that stage, it’s much easier to address with healthy lifestyle changes.
He’s also realistic. Getting every pillar right sounds great, “but who has time to do that?” Part of his job is to identify each patient’s particular risk factors and show them where they’ll get the most bang for their buck with the limited time they have.
Why Lifestyle Medicine Matters for Older Adults
Dr. Moore’s first message to older adults is simple: it’s never too late. Starting earlier brings more benefit, but change at any age is worth it.
When he works with older patients, he looks closely at their motivation. The ones he hears most often:
- “I’m on too many medicines. I don’t want to start this new one. Is there something else I could do?”
- “This medicine is giving me side effects. Is there another way to address this problem?”
- “I have grandkids, and I want to be around for them, to pick them up and play with them.”
Another major motivator is brain health. Many older adults want to know what they can do proactively to reduce their risk of dementia as they age, and lifestyle plays a meaningful role there too.
Knowledge, Motivation, and Making It Fit
While lifestyle medicine involves some testing, Dr. Moore says his main intervention is time: making sure each patient has three things needed for lasting change:
- Knowledge: understanding what they’re at risk for and where to focus.
- Motivation: a personal reason that keeps them going.
- A practical plan: knowing how to fit changes into real life, or as he puts it, “how to make the healthy choice the easy choice.”
The Concierge Advantage
That kind of support takes time, which is a big reason Dr. Moore moved to a concierge model. At Complete Concierge Care, initial appointments are 90 minutes and follow-ups are 60 minutes, and he can see patients as often as they need to support the changes they’re making.
Concierge medicine, he explained, grew out of frustration with a system in which physicians see so many patients that there’s barely time to write a prescription. A membership fee allows the practice to care for fewer patients, which means more time per patient, a closer relationship, and better access. His practice holds appointments open each day so patients with last-minute needs can usually be seen within 24 to 48 hours, without a trip to urgent care.
The Takeaway: Consistency Beats Perfection
As we wrapped up, I asked Dr. Moore what he most wanted people to remember. His answer was refreshingly practical:
“It’s never too late, and consistency when it comes to making a lifestyle change beats perfection every time.”
Can’t make it to the gym today? Walk around the block. Doing small things consistently is what really makes a difference.
This was the first of what I hope will be many conversations with Dr. Moore. I’ll be inviting him back to dig deeper into each pillar of lifestyle medicine, so stay tuned.
