What if your doctor’s goal wasn’t to treat your illness, but to make sure you never had one in the first place?
Meet Dr Beth Frates, who aims to cure disease before it is contracted. Harvard and Stanford educated, serving on the medical school faculty at Harvard since 1996, a powerhouse in Lifestyle Medicine, Dr Beth Frates has spent the past 30 years creating a better, smarter approach to healthcare, one that helps people live well, not just live longer.
She has built a programme to stop illness in its tracks, based on the lifestyle choices of individuals.
A doctor who saw the future of medicine early
- Inspired by her father, who suffered a heart attack and stroke at the age of 52 when Beth was 18 years old, Beth knew she wanted to be a physician and a healer. She wanted to create a system where prescriptions would rarely be needed.
- She pursued her medical degree at Stanford and completed her residency at Harvard. That’s where she noticed the glaring gap in conventional healthcare: no one was talking about how food, movement, and mindset could impact chronic illness.
- Instead of staying silent, she did something fascinating. In 2008, Beth launched Harvard Medical School’s first Lifestyle Medicine Interest Group. It would eventually start a nationwide shift to include these Lifestyle Medicine Interest Groups in over 100 medical schools, thereby providing the first steps to bringing the six pillars of lifestyle medicine into medical education.
- By 2015, she created a 14-week Lifestyle Medicine course at Harvard Extension School, still one of the most popular classes offered. In fact, this past spring, Dr. Frates received a teaching award from the Harvard Extension School, the Petra Shattuck Excellence in Teaching Award for 2025.
The PAVING Method: A Blueprint for Total Well-Being
Dr. Beth Frates, MD, and the non-profit she founded, PAVING Wellness, built a highly unique system in the medical world: a structured lifestyle medicine and wellbeing system backed by research, results, and heart. The PAVING program teaches and coaches individuals how to enhance their:
- Physical health: Weekly sessions explore activity, food, sleep, and more. These are real-life skills, complete with cooking demos and gym alternatives.
- Mindset: The programme includes stress resiliency, mindfulness, and something many wellness programmes skip: “time outs” from toxic routines and habits, and energy management. Most people only think of time management, but this programme goes deeper into energy management.
- Social and emotional life: PAVING guides participants in building better connections and identifying purpose and meaning in life. It’s about healing the person, not just the body.
- The book Beth co-authored, PAVING the Path to Wellness Workbook, is a step-by-step toolkit used by patients, coaches, and entire communities. And it’s catching on, from hospitals to high schools.
- The model even has its own 12-step wellness wheel, covering everything from energy and attitude to goal-setting and investigation. Each piece is practical, doable, and designed to stick.
“When I first started my work with Dr Frates, I was obese and amidst a diabetes scare. It served as a major wake-up call… She worked with me week by week through many challenges and obstacles,” One of her happy clients says, “Over the past 7 months, I have had a dramatic change in my personal habits through my work with Dr. Frates… Soon, over time, I realised that change was possible even in the most difficult situations. Using the coach approach, we have tackled many hurdles in order to realise my dreams of being fit and healthy… Now my diet consists of healthy foods that ‘fuel’ me. As a result, I have lost 25 pounds!! I am much more confident than I have ever been in my life. I feel good in my body, and my brain “fog” has disappeared. Now more than ever, I believe that it is all possible.”
Beyond the exam room: education, influence, and impact
- Dr Frates is changing lives and institutions. She has trained thousands of students at Harvard, mentored dozens of rising physicians, and helped tens of organisations implement wellness policies.
- Her speaking engagements span hospitals, medical conferences, for-profit businesses, non-profit organizations, and even refugee programs. Her workshops teach and transform.
- As Immediate Past President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, she helped shape the national standards for this growing specialty. She even helped write the inaugural certification exam in 2017
- And she’s prolific. With titles like The Lifestyle Medicine Handbook, The Teen Lifestyle Medicine Handbook, and Empowering Behavior Change in Patients, her books are playing a huge part in how the next generation of healthcare professionals think and learn.
She believes we are at a tipping point in medicine, and lifestyle interventions can’t be the afterthought anymore. They have to be the foundation.
A proven voice in academic research
Dr Beth Frates is also an accomplished researcher, with an H-index of 23 and an i10-index of 33. Her works have influenced the discussion on the issue of Lifestyle Medicine, physical activity, and wellness coaching. One of her most cited works, “Personal exercise habits and counselling practices of primary care physicians: a national survey,” has been referenced more than 580 times. Other notable contributions include The Connection Prescription, cited 299 times, which explores the health power of social bonds, and The Laughter Prescription, cited 81 times, which shows how joy can be medicine. Her writing is science-oriented and contains real-world applications, making it easy to apply her work not only to clinicians but also to the general population.
Takeaway
Are you a school looking to educate students differently, or a company ready to support employee health, or an individual eager to reclaim your well-being? Dr. Beth Frates offers the tools and the track record to help you get there.
Because living well shouldn’t feel complicated, it should feel like PAVING the path, and walking it.
Ellen Diamond, a psychology graduate from the University of Hertfordshire, has a keen interest in the fields of mental health, wellness, and lifestyle.