Blue Zones and American College of Lifestyle Medicine launch new Blue Zones® Certification for Physicians and Health Professionals

(Press-News.org) Blue Zones and the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) today launched the “Blue Zones Certification Course for Physicians and Health Professionals.” The new certification recognizes clinicians with the knowledge and tools to promote longevity, well-being, and health equity—both in the exam room and in their communities.

The certification integrates Blue Zones' evidence-based roadmap to living better and longer, rooted in their identification of and research from the world's longest-lived and happiest cultures—the blue zones regions—with ACLM's expertise in therapeutic lifestyle interventions. Lifestyle medicine is a medical specialty that utilizes optimal nutrition, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, connectedness, and the avoidance of risky substances to treat, reverse, and prevent chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.

The online course is organized into modules that begin by introducing participants to the blue zones regions and the Power 9® principles—the lifestyle habits identified by Blue Zones founder Dan Buettner and his research team as being shared by the world’s longest-lived people. Subsequent modules explore Blue Zones’ environment-first approach to health and longevity, applying Blue Zones principles in communities, organizations, and into patient care. The final two modules challenge participants to personally practice Blue Zones lifestyle habits, serve as changemakers, and help drive community transformation.

The creation of the “Blue Zones-Certified Physician” and “Blue Zones-Certified Health Professional” designations is a significant milestone in the global impact partnership formed last year by ACLM and Blue Zones to address the unsustainable burden of chronic disease.

Ben Leedle, CEO of Blue Zones and Co-founder of Blue Zones Project®, said: “Blue Zones has proven that you can improve population health outside clinic walls by redesigning the places and systems in which people spend the most time. Lifestyle medicine has proven that evidence-based lifestyle interventions—like nutrition, movement, sleep, and stress management—can prevent, treat, and even reverse chronic diseases. This certification bridges our environment-first approach with medicine. When you converge ‘care of the patient’ with ‘health of the public,’ you don't just treat or reverse disease, you can prevent it at scale.”

To become a "Blue Zones-Certified Physician" or "Blue Zones-Certified Health Professional," clinicians must first earn lifestyle medicine board certification. In the U.S., physicians are certified by the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine (ABLM) while ACLM certifies eligible health professionals. Outside the U.S., the International Board of Lifestyle Medicine (IBLM) is the certification body for physicians and eligible health professionals.

Clinicians who achieve Blue Zones certification not only deepen their knowledge and skills but also benefit from Blue Zones’ global brand recognition. Patients can feel confident knowing they are receiving care rooted in the Blue Zones principles, while clinicians gain visibility for their Blue Zones Certification through ACLM’s searchable database of certified lifestyle medicine clinicians. Clinicians can also apply Blue Zones principles in their own lives to support their well-being and resilience.

“Clinicians who achieve Blue Zones Certification will stand out in their communities as leaders in the movement to transform healthcare from a system of ‘sick care’ to one of true health restoration,” said ACLM President Padmaja Patel, MD, DipABLM, FACLM, CPE. “This certification affirms their commitment to evidence-based, lifestyle-first approaches, while also providing them with the visibility, credibility, and brand recognition that helps strengthen the trust of patients, colleagues, and health systems alike."

Since the lifestyle medicine certification exam was first offered in 2017, the number of certified physicians and health professionals has grown rapidly to more than 8,000 worldwide. On average, more than 900 additional clinicians are certified each year. Growth in recent years has accelerated even further to nearly three times faster between 2023 and 2025, underscoring the rapid adoption of lifestyle medicine across the healthcare landscape. A record 1,728 individuals registered for the 2025 exam. The 2026 exam will be offered Nov. 21 to Dec. 6.

“The growth of lifestyle medicine has been nothing short of extraordinary, and the introduction of Blue Zones Certification builds on that momentum,” said Blue Zones Certification Course Lead Faculty Michelle Tollefson, MD, DipABLM, FACLM, FACOG. “This new certification pathway gives clinicians practical tools to extend their impact well beyond the exam room—into families, workplaces, and communities—while reinforcing the critical role of lifestyle interventions in treating, reversing, and preventing chronic disease.”

The Blue Zones–ACLM Fellows Program is currently in development and will offer deeper and more specialized training in lifestyle medicine principles aligned with the Blue Zones philosophy and research.

About ACLM®

The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) is the nation’s medical professional society advancing the field of lifestyle medicine as the foundation of a redesigned, value-based and equitable healthcare delivery system, essential to achieving the Quintuple Aim and whole-person health. ACLM represents, advocates for, trains, certifies, and equips its members to identify and eradicate the root cause of chronic disease by optimizing modifiable risk factors. ACLM is filling the gaping void of lifestyle medicine in medical education, providing more than 1.2 million hours of lifestyle medicine education to physicians and other health professionals since 2004, while also advancing research, clinical practice and reimbursement strategies.

About Blue Zones®

Blue Zones employs evidence-based ways to help people live better, longer. The company's work is rooted in explorations and research done by founder and National Geographic Fellow Dan Buettner in blue zones regions around the world, where people live extraordinarily long and/or happy lives. The original research and findings were released in Buettner's bestselling books The Blue Zones Solution, The Blue Zones of Happiness, The Blue Zones, Thrive, and Blue Zones Kitchen, Blue Zones Challenge—all published by National Geographic books. A hit docuseries, Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones, was released on Netflix in 2023. Using original Blue Zones research, Blue Zones works with cities and counties to make healthy choices easier through permanent and semi-permanent changes to our human-made surroundings. Participating communities have experienced double-digit drops in obesity and tobacco use and have saved millions of dollars in healthcare costs.

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