Planetary Health and Lifestyle Medicine in Viet Nam
A Practical Introduction for Healthcare Professionals
Vietnam Lifestyle Medicine Alliance
Version 1.0 | October 2026
Evidence reviewed through October 2026
Why this matters in Viet Nam
Viet Nam is facing health challenges that are increasingly difficult to consider in isolation. Noncommunicable diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes, account for about 80% of deaths in the country. At the same time, air pollution, rising temperatures, extreme weather, changing food systems, urban development and changing patterns of mobility are influencing the conditions in which people live, work, travel, eat and care for their health. [1]
These issues come together in everyday healthcare. Air quality and extreme heat can affect when and where outdoor activity is practical for some people. Urban design shapes opportunities for walking, cycling and everyday movement. Food systems influence what foods are available, affordable and culturally acceptable while also placing pressure on natural systems. A lifestyle recommendation can therefore be scientifically sound and still be difficult to follow if the conditions surrounding a person make it unrealistic. For healthcare professionals, this broader context matters because health behaviors are shaped not only by individual choices, but also by the social and environmental conditions in which those choices are made.
What is Planetary Health?
Planetary Health is a solutions-oriented, transdisciplinary field and social movement focused on understanding and addressing the effects of human disruption of Earth’s natural systems on human health and all life on Earth. It brings together perspectives from health, environmental science, social science, economics, policy, education and other fields to examine relationships that cannot be adequately understood within a single discipline. [2]
The Planetary Health Education Framework provides a useful foundation for bringing this perspective into education. It identifies five interconnected domains: interconnection within nature; the Anthropocene and health; equity and social justice; movement building and systems change; and systems thinking and complexity. Importantly, the framework is not a rigid curriculum or a prescriptive list of competencies. It provides a common foundational language that can be adapted to different professions, cultures and educational settings. [3]
For healthcare professionals, Planetary Health does not replace clinical medicine, public health or environmental health. Rather, it broadens the context in which we understand disease, prevention and care by asking how changes in the systems on which health depends may affect both health outcomes and people’s ability to maintain healthy behaviors.
Why connect Planetary Health with Lifestyle Medicine?
Lifestyle Medicine focuses on health behaviors including nutrition, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances and positive social connection. These behaviors are important to health and to the prevention and management of many chronic conditions. Yet they do not occur independently of the environments and social conditions in which people live.
The ability to eat well depends partly on affordability, food availability, culture and the wider food environment. Walking, cycling and other forms of physical activity depend partly on safe streets, access to public and green spaces, air quality, climate and working conditions. Sleep may be influenced by heat, housing conditions, noise and work patterns, while opportunities for social connection can also be affected by mobility, employment, community design and socioeconomic circumstances.
The Lifestyle Medicine Core Competencies: 2025 Update explicitly revised the Planetary Health competency to focus on examining the relationship between Lifestyle Medicine, Planetary Health and sustainable living. The same update added a new competency addressing Lifestyle Medicine interventions in the context of social determinants of health to improve health outcomes and health equity. [4]
Connecting the two fields therefore involves more than adding an environmental message to lifestyle counseling. It means recognizing that individual behavior, human health, social conditions and environmental systems interact.
1. Food systems and healthy eating
Food is one of the clearest areas in which Lifestyle Medicine and Planetary Health meet. Healthy dietary patterns can support health and reduce the burden of noncommunicable diseases, but what people eat is influenced by far more than knowledge or motivation. Production, processing, distribution, affordability, food culture, marketing, access and food waste all help shape the food environment.
The World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations describe sustainable healthy diets as dietary patterns that support health and well-being while limiting environmental pressure and impact, and that are accessible, affordable and culturally acceptable. This should not be interpreted as a prescription for one universal diet. Nutritional needs, food cultures, economic circumstances and local food systems differ, and these differences matter when evidence is translated into practice. [5]
For Viet Nam, the connection is particularly tangible. A 2025 analysis of the Vietnamese food system identified rice cultivation, livestock emissions, household food consumption, food processing, synthetic fertilizers and food-system waste as its largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Together, these sources accounted for 78.8% of the food-system emissions estimated in that analysis for 2022. [6]
For healthcare professionals, the practical message is not to prescribe an environmentally “perfect” diet. A more appropriate approach is to support dietary patterns that are nutritionally appropriate, culturally relevant, affordable and, where feasible, increasingly sustainable, while recognizing that the food system itself shapes what people can realistically choose.
2. Air pollution and health
Air pollution is both an environmental and a health problem. Fine particulate pollution can penetrate deep into the lungs and affect the cardiovascular system, and exposure is associated with cardiovascular and respiratory disease, stroke, lung cancer and respiratory infections. World Health Organization reporting estimates that air pollution is associated with about 70,000 deaths each year in Viet Nam. [7]
This also matters when discussing physical activity. Physical activity remains important for health, but outdoor activity does not take place under identical conditions every day. Air quality, local public-health advice, the type of activity being considered and the individual’s health status may all be relevant, particularly for people who are more susceptible to the effects of air pollution.
Air pollution also shows why individual-level action, while important, is not sufficient on its own. A person can make choices about some behaviors but cannot personally control traffic emissions, industrial pollution or regional air quality. Supporting individual health remains important, but healthier populations also require environments that make healthy behavior safer and more achievable.
3. Heat, climate and health
Extreme heat is becoming an increasingly important health concern. The World Health Organization identifies heat as an important environmental and occupational health hazard and notes that heat stress can worsen a range of underlying conditions. Vulnerability is not evenly distributed: age, underlying illness, occupation, socioeconomic circumstances and the environments in which people live and work all influence risk. [8]
These considerations intersect with Lifestyle Medicine in practical ways. Outdoor physical activity may sometimes need to be considered in relation to heat exposure and individual circumstances, while high nighttime temperatures can make restorative sleep more difficult. For an outdoor worker or someone living in poorly cooled housing, the surrounding environment may be a more important determinant of heat exposure than motivation or health knowledge alone.
Climate-related risks also affect healthcare delivery. Flooding, storms, water insecurity, power disruption and extreme heat can interfere with the ability of health facilities to provide safe and continuous care. Viet Nam already has practical experience in this area. In a new phase of a World Health Organization-supported program to strengthen climate resilience and environmental sustainability in healthcare facilities, air-quality sensors were installed in three hospitals. At a participating hospital in the Mekong Delta, water infrastructure was also upgraded in response to increasingly saline water supplies. [7]
Climate and environmental conditions are therefore relevant not only to public health policy, but increasingly to healthcare planning and to the context in which prevention and clinical care take place.
4. Built environment and physical activity
Physical activity is influenced not only by motivation but also by place. Walking, cycling, active recreation and everyday movement become more feasible when people have safer streets, connected destinations, usable public spaces and infrastructure that accommodates people of different ages and abilities.
The World Health Organization’s 2025 toolkit on walking and cycling emphasizes that safe active mobility can generate health, environmental, social and economic benefits, and presents policy options designed to make walking and cycling safer and more accessible for both transportation and recreation. [9]
This perspective is relevant to rapidly developing Vietnamese cities. A clinician may help someone establish a physical activity goal, but whether that goal can be sustained may depend on traffic conditions, road safety, air quality, heat, working hours, access to public space and neighborhood design. The built environment is therefore part of the real-world context in which lifestyle interventions either become easier or remain difficult to implement.
5. Sustainable living and healthcare
Planetary Health should not be interpreted as asking individual patients to carry responsibility for environmental sustainability. Many of the largest determinants of both health and environmental impact sit within food, transport, energy, urban, economic and healthcare systems.
There are, however, important situations in which health and environmental goals reinforce one another. These are often described as health co-benefits. Safer walking and cycling can support physical activity while reducing reliance on motorized transport. Cleaner energy can improve air quality while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Changes in food systems can potentially support better nutrition while reducing environmental pressures. In 2026, the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific highlighted transport, energy, food systems, urban development and water as key sectors in which well-designed climate action can generate substantial and relatively immediate health co-benefits. [10]
Healthcare organizations also have responsibilities of their own. Health facilities rely on energy, water, procurement, transportation, waste management and resilient infrastructure, while environmental disruption can directly affect their ability to deliver safe care. World Health Organization guidance provides practical approaches for developing healthcare facilities that are safe, climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable. [11]
The goal, then, is not simply to tell patients to “live more sustainably.” It is also to consider how healthcare organizations and the wider systems around them can create healthier, safer and more resilient conditions.
6. Health equity and social determinants
Healthy choices are not equally available to everyone. Two people may receive the same advice but have very different opportunities to act on it. One may have access to safe places for physical activity, affordable healthy food, stable housing, flexible working hours and reliable cooling. Another may work outdoors in extreme heat, live close to heavy traffic, have limited time or income, or lack safe public space.
These differences matter in healthcare. The updated Lifestyle Medicine Core Competencies explicitly incorporate social determinants of health and health equity, recognizing that Lifestyle Medicine interventions need to be understood within the social, economic, cultural and structural circumstances that influence health. [4] Planetary Health adds an environmental dimension to the same discussion because exposure to pollution, climate hazards and environmental degradation, as well as access to environmental benefits, may also be unevenly distributed.
An equity-informed approach therefore avoids assuming that difficulty making or sustaining a lifestyle change simply reflects inadequate motivation. A more useful question is: What conditions are helping or preventing this person from making and sustaining a healthy change?
What this means for healthcare professionals
Planetary Health does not require every healthcare professional to become a climate scientist, environmental specialist or urban planner. It does encourage us to look more carefully at the context surrounding health behaviors and to recognize when conditions beyond the individual influence what is safe, realistic and sustainable.
Five questions can provide a practical starting point. First, is this recommendation realistic in this person’s environment? Consider access to healthy food, opportunities for safe physical activity, appropriate conditions for sleep and meaningful social support. Second, could environmental conditions affect its safety or feasibility? Heat, air quality, occupational exposure or extreme weather may sometimes matter. Third, is the recommendation equitable and culturally appropriate? Consider whether the person can reasonably afford, access and sustain what is being discussed. Fourth, is there an opportunity for a health co-benefit? Some actions may support health while also contributing to active mobility, cleaner air, healthier food environments or more sustainable use of resources. Fifth, does part of the problem require action beyond the individual? In some situations, healthcare organizations, communities, employers, local authorities or other sectors may also need to create conditions that support health.
These questions do not replace clinical assessment, individualized care or evidence-based treatment. Their purpose is to place those activities within the conditions in which people actually live.
Moving from individual behavior to systems thinking
Lifestyle Medicine has an important role in helping people prevent and manage chronic disease and improve health. Sustained improvement, however, cannot depend only on asking individuals to make better choices. Food systems influence what is available and affordable. Transport and urban design influence how safely people can move. Climate and air quality influence the conditions in which outdoor activity occurs. Housing and working conditions can affect sleep, stress and environmental exposure.
Planetary Health provides a framework for understanding these connections without diminishing the importance of individual clinical care. It places that care in a wider context and encourages healthcare professionals to recognize where individual counseling is useful, where advice needs to be adapted to a person’s circumstances, and where organizational, community or policy responses may also be relevant.
For the Vietnam Lifestyle Medicine Alliance, this Education Brief is an initial step toward integrating Planetary Health more explicitly into professional education and knowledge sharing in Viet Nam. This direction is consistent with VLMA’s commitment as a member organization of the Planetary Health Alliance to strengthen Planetary Health education for healthcare professionals, adapt relevant knowledge and resources for the Vietnamese context, and contribute perspectives and emerging experience from Viet Nam to the wider community. The Planetary Health Alliance currently lists VLMA as a member organization from Viet Nam, having joined in 2026. [12]
The purpose is not to create another clinical specialty or to transfer environmental responsibility onto patients. It is to help healthcare professionals better understand how lifestyle, human health, social conditions and environmental systems interact. Future VLMA work in this area will continue to emphasize evidence, interdisciplinary learning and practical relevance to the Vietnamese healthcare context. Bringing systems thinking into Lifestyle Medicine does not diminish the importance of individual care; it helps place lifestyle interventions in the circumstances in which people actually live, making them potentially more realistic, equitable and relevant.
References & Further Learning
[1] World Health Organization Viet Nam. Viet Nam unites to tackle top causes of disease and death. 15 December 2025.
[2] Planetary Health Alliance. Planetary Health. Current foundational resource. Accessed October 2026.
[3] Faerron Guzmán C, Potter T, Planetary Health Alliance. The Planetary Health Education Framework. 2021.
[4] Rea BL, Cheema S, Lanza S, Makinde MT, Matthews S, Palma M, Szentgyörgyi B, Karlsen MC. Lifestyle Medicine Core Competencies: 2025 Update. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. First published online 28 October 2025. doi:10.1177/15598276251379821.
[5] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and World Health Organization. Sustainable Healthy Diets: Guiding Principles. Rome; 2019.
[6] Martius C, Vu TP, Pingault N, Pham TT, Wassmann R, Guérin L, Mwambo F, Nhuong T, Yee CC. Vietnam’s transition to low-emission food systems: 2025 country profile – 2nd Edition. Occasional Paper 22. CIFOR-ICRAF; 2025. doi:10.17528/cifor-icraf/009404.
[7] World Health Organization Viet Nam. Viet Nam ends 2025 with strong public health progress. 2025.
[8] World Health Organization. Heat and health. Updated 31 July 2026.
[9] World Health Organization. Promoting walking and cycling: a toolkit of policy options. 8 May 2025.
[10] World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific. Climate action for health: a policy guide for co-benefits in the Western Pacific Region. 3 June 2026.
[11] World Health Organization. Safe, climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable health care facilities: an overview. 3 November 2024.
[12] Planetary Health Alliance. Member Organizations – Vietnam Lifestyle Medicine Alliance (VLMA). Year joined: 2026. Accessed October 2026.
About this Education Brief
This resource is part of the VLMA Knowledge & Evidence initiative and is intended to support evidence-informed learning and professional discussion among healthcare professionals in Viet Nam.
Suggested citation: Vietnam Lifestyle Medicine Alliance. Planetary Health and Lifestyle Medicine in Viet Nam: A Practical Introduction for Healthcare Professionals. VLMA Planetary Health Education Brief No. 1. Version 1.0. October 2026.
Educational disclaimer: This resource is intended for educational purposes only. It does not constitute medical advice, a clinical practice guideline, a standard of care or an accredited continuing medical education activity, and it is not a substitute for individualized professional assessment or applicable clinical guidance. Healthcare professionals should follow applicable Vietnamese laws and regulations, professional standards, institutional policies and relevant clinical guidance when providing care.
Planetary Health Alliance affiliation: Vietnam Lifestyle Medicine Alliance is a Member Organization of the Planetary Health Alliance. This Education Brief was developed independently by VLMA and is not a Planetary Health Alliance publication.
Statement about represented views: “The views, opinions, and information expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official policy, position, or views of the Planetary Health Alliance.”
Vietnam Lifestyle Medicine Alliance
Evidence-Based Lifestyle Medicine for Viet Nam.
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