Absence of disease can be conceived of as a period of early disease-development, where all internal and external factors that were contributing towards health are starting to dysfunction and no measurable markers of disease (symptoms) have yet emerged. It is the window of opportunity where lifestyle interventions, or behavioral changes, are key players in predicting and manipulating future outcomes of wellbeing. It is likewise a time when individuals can have pivotal influence over their own future wellbeing, which is determined by a dynamic multitude of everyday lifestyle decisions and behaviors.

The way one eats (and what one eats), prepares meals, consumes other substances (tobacco, recreational drugs), moves their body, sleeps, interacts with both the external environmental and their internal world (mental processes), deals with the inevitable stressors of life (from major catastrophes, losses and aging to everyday commuting, long sedentary working hours, etc.) are all called behavior.

The behavioral choices one makes in all those domains are the main predictors of their future path either towards health or disease. Human behaviour is a set of actions frequently repeated as a result of genetic/social/familial conditioning. When that behavior becomes a fixed and established pattern that lead towards the disease-end of the spectrum, and change is required, then the role of General practitioner is as important as it is challenging.

The majority (if not all) of chronic conditions are the result of repetitive sequences of a multitude of harmful choices/ behaviors. These behaviors may be interpreted as often being implicitly harmful, which is to say that the harm they cause to an individual is discrete and difficult to recognize. Oftentimes they may be veiled as beneficial coping strategies in the short-run, all the while accumulating and posing significant risks to general health in the long-run. Therefore, this critical time-frame for intervention which we have defined as, the absence of disease, should be understood as a window of opportunity in which the general practitioner must take a leading role in the health-process.

The majority of GP visits provide excellent opportunities for checking lifestyle habits, for education and intervention (if needed). Checking lifestyle history (checking 8 vitals), and providing a brief education on lifestyle practices are less difficult part of the GP’s role as an LS-practitioner. The challenging part is determining when and how intervention is required. Lifestyle intervention occurs when a doctor “sees” the fragile-spot in a patient’s behavioral architecture and decides that it is important to, alongside the patient, address this source of potential harm. (Un)fortunately, the human mind is much more complex than a computer, and simple ‘fixing’ the source of harm is not an appropriate solution.

This is why self-determination theory^1,2 and self-efficacy theory^3,4 are indispensable theoretical frameworks that all health professionals who are in the primary care sector need to understand. These two paradigms postulate that all human beings require three basic needs to be met so that they can behave according to their innate and universal need (and potential) for development.