Beth Frates, MD, on the Power of Lifestyle Medicine: How One Doctor is Rewriting the Rules of Healthcare

Dr. Beth Frates is reshaping healthcare through lifestyle medicine, clinical nutrition, and her groundbreaking non-profit, PAVING the Path to Wellness.

Healthcare today often rushes to treat symptoms. But what if the reality of better health lies in small, lasting lifestyle changes, based on prevention rather than prescriptions? 

That’s the question Dr. Beth Frates has dedicated her life to answering. She is a Harvard-trained physiatrist, health coach, and longtime faculty member at Harvard Medical School. She’s a lifestyle medicine expert, one of the first to believe that food, exercise, sleep, social connection, and purpose aren’t fringe topics but medicine.

As President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine from 2022–2024, she led a community of 10,000 professionals who share a mission: treat root causes, not just symptoms. Now, as Immediate Past President, she impacts the future of preventive care from the classroom to the clinic.

But her influence doesn’t stop at Harvard. Through her consulting brand, BethFratesMD, and her non-profit, PAVING the Path to Wellness, Dr. Frates delivers actionable tools to help people thrive with a ‘healthy body, peaceful mind, and joyful heart.’

Why Medical Education Needs a Nutrition Wake-Up Call

Dr. Frates’s recent book, Essentials of Clinical Nutrition in Healthcare (McGraw Hill, 2024), fills a large gap in Lifestyle Medicine. Most medical students graduate with minimal nutrition training, despite overwhelming evidence that diet affects nearly every aspect of health.

Through this book and her work, Dr. Frates is making the case for nutrition to be treated with the same urgency as pharmacology. She’s not alone; over 200 students enroll in her Harvard online courses on nutrition and lifestyle wellness coaching, with each cohort walking away with immensely valuable knowledge and resources.

According to Dr. Frates, implementing small changes can lead to big results. 

Her educational reach extends across:

• Harvard Medical School Continuing Education programs.
• Harvard Extension School classes like Wellbeing from the Inside Out and Culinary Psychology.
• Webinars hosted by the American Medical Association and Primary Care Collaborative.

Inside the PAVING Wheel: 12 Ways to Transform Your Health

Dr. Frates’s mission is her 12-step lifestyle program: PAVING the Path to Wellness. It’s practical, research-based, and built around small shifts that are implementable.

The program revolves around three key areas:

Healthy Body

• Physical Activity: Build strength and stamina through exercise that fits your lifestyle.
• Nutrition: Choose whole, nutrient-rich foods and learn cooking strategies to make them delicious.
• Sleep: Create routines that improve the quality and quantity of rest.

Peaceful Mind

• Stress Resiliency: Master tools like deep breathing and mindfulness.
• Attitude: Cultivate a growth mindset and openness to change.
• Time Outs: Step away from negativity to regain mental clarity.

Joyful Heart

• Social Support: Strengthen high-quality connections with others.
• Energy: Fuel your day with natural sources of vitality.
• Purpose: Align your habits with what matters most.

Anyone can explore these 12 steps using the PAVING Workbook, which makes the program accessible for individuals, schools, and medical groups alike.

Why Her Methods Are Gaining Traction (and Changing Lives)

Dr. Frates is building tools people can use, which they are vicariously doing. From her Lifestyle Medicine Pocket Guide to her online wellness coaching program, the results speak for themselves.

Her methods are backed by:

• Decades of teaching and clinical practice.
• Partnerships with Harvard, Mass General Brigham, and Spaulding Rehab.
• Research-backed curriculum development, including Lifestyle Medicine 101, used nationwide.

One physician, reflecting on a course she created, said:

“I wish that there had been something like this available to me during my training or earlier in my career.”

Her fellow faculty recognize her impact, too. She’s been honored with numerous teaching awards and, most recently, the #IStandWithHer She for She Award at the 2024 Women in Medicine Conference for mentoring and uplifting other women in healthcare.

Frates also co-edited the Routledge International Handbook of Positive Health Sciences, bridging positive psychology and lifestyle medicine to present a new kind of whole-person health science.

Conclusion

Chronic illness isn’t going away. But with experts like Dr. Beth Frates, the way we treat it might.

Instead of relying solely on prescriptions, her work invites patients and practitioners to take part in their own healing. It’s accessible. It’s science-backed. And most importantly, it’s working. Every journey to better health starts with a single habit.

Individuals are tired of quick fixes and ready for lasting change. Dr. Frates has become the guide they are referring to.