About Ardmore Institute of Health
Our Mission
Improve the health and vitality of people to live more meaningful lives.
Our Vision
We work for a future where healthy environments and lifestyles provide equitable and preferred methods to prevent, treat, and reverse chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
It Began in 1947
Ardmore Institute of Health (AIH) was established in 1947 by the Johnson family. Inspired by the sanitarium movement and Adventist principles of healthy living, Dr. Otey Johnson left much of his estate to further the AIH mission in 1987. A lifelong learner, Dr. Johnson believed in the potential of lifestyle to improve health and well-being. This commitment to improving health continues to drive our mission today.
From Inspiration to Innovation
Starting in the mid-1990s, AIH operated the Lifestyle Center of America in Southern Oklahoma. The Center provided services for those interested in preventing and reversing chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Patients enjoyed multi-week visits, healthy meals, fitness facilities, and medical care and nutritional training. The Center fostered an environment for both patients and staff to experience how lifestyle changes can dramatically improve health.
After nearly two decades, AIH closed the Center in pursuit of reaching more people. The learnings from the Center were published in the New York Times bestseller, The Full Plate Diet. Based on these learnings, AIH developed the Full Plate Living nutrition and lifestyle improvement programs. Today, Full Plate Living is offered free of cost and supports thousands of people.
Our Impact Today
Full Plate Living is a free service of AIH that offers a scientifically proven, simple, and sustainable approach to healthy living, empowering individuals to achieve lasting well-being.
AIH provides grant funding to mission-aligned nonprofits doing innovative work to accelerate Whole Health and Lifestyle Medicine adoption and learnings.
Through grantee projects, collaborations, research, and convenings, AIH generates resources to support health professionals, employers, and individuals.
Our Commitment to Health
“The choices people make are subordinate to the choices they have.” — David Katz
AIH is committed to helping make healthy living an accessible, equitable, and easy choice for everyone. We believe Whole Health makes this possible.
Whole Health is physical, behavioral, spiritual, and socioeconomic well-being. Whole Health care is anchored in trusted longitudinal relationships that promote resilience, prevent disease, and restore health.
Whole Health is achieved through a multifaceted, integrative approach that includes Lifestyle Medicine and Whole Person Care.
Lifestyle Medicine is a medical specialty that uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions as a primary modality to treat chronic conditions. Lifestyle Medicine-certified clinicians are trained to apply evidence-based, prescriptive lifestyle change to treat and reverse such conditions (See A Family Physician’s Introduction to Lifestyle Medicine Supplement).
Whole Person Care is a person-centered, relationship-based care that takes into account the social, spiritual, emotional, and behavioral aspects of health as well as the environment in which a person lives. Whole Person Care coordinates the delivery of conventional medical care, complementary medicine, and Lifestyle Medicine, and it centers around what matters to you, rather than what is the matter with you.
By championing Whole Health through Lifestyle Medicine and Whole Person Care approaches, AIH is on a mission to transform the way people are cared for in America.
Strategic Priorities
AIH is driven by three key goals, which pave the way for achieving our mission and vision:
Establish Lifestyle Medicine and Whole Health as integral components of the delivery of care in the US healthcare system, bringing Lifestyle Medicine into the mainstream of clinical practice so that clinicians are trained, tested, reimbursed, and required to include it in practice.
Support research and pilot projects that add to the evidence base of plant-predominant nutrition that prevents, treats, and/or reverses diet-related diseases.
Establish AIH as a respected convener and resource for information related to Lifestyle Medicine and health improvement practices.
The AIH Strategic Plan is a living document and is available for anyone to access.