You're managing your conditions. But are you actually feeling better?

If you’re managing multiple conditions and symptoms, you aren’t alone: nearly 80% of adults over the age of 65 have two or more chronic conditions and 89% of older adults have taken medication in the last year. 

Most older adults with chronic conditions are taking their medications, seeing their doctors, following their instructions and still feeling tired, heavy, achy, and foggy. Being managed is not the same as feeling better. You don’t have to sacrifice managing your symptoms for quality of life. Bold Care providers are lifestyle medicine specialists. That means their job isn't to replace your prescriptions (in fact, Bold doesn’t prescribe medications at all!), it's to address the daily habits that may be making your conditions harder to manage – and help you feel better in the process. 

Lifestyle medicine looks at everything else going on in your life in addition to your symptoms – things like your nutrition, your activity, your sleep, your stress levels. 

Bold Care works alongside your existing care team, complementing your prescriptions, not replacing them. Lifestyle changes, guided by a specialist, can meaningfully improve how you feel and how your conditions behave day-to-day and may support in reducing the number of pills you take per day.

Lifestyle medicine: Why your daily habits matter more than you think

75% of how we age is due to lifestyle factors, with just 25% due to genetics –  in other words, the actions we take every day play a big role in our ability to age healthily. Bold Care helps you age better. Our providers look at the full picture of your daily habits, including nutrition, movement, sleep, stress, weight, and connection: the levers that most directly affect how chronic conditions behave.

• Weight and metabolic health: understanding how nutrition, movement, and daily habits affect your weight, and what to do about it.
• Restorative sleep: Reducing fatigue and insomnia without adding a new pill.
• Nutrition for vitality: Practical, low-inflammation food choices that boost energy.
• Movement & balance: Creating a plan to improve mobility and boost balance (Bold members see a 46% reduction in falls).
• Stress & connection: Managing life transitions, anxiety, or "brain fog" through expert guidance.

These are not wellness tips. These are clinical levers that directly affect how chronic conditions manifest in your life. Read on for how lifestyle medicine can help support the following chronic conditions. 

Weight and metabolic health: Beyond calorie counting

What's really going on: Weight in older adults is rarely just about eating too much. It's often connected to changing hormones, disrupted sleep (which directly affects hormones that regulate appetite and metabolism), reduced muscle mass, chronic stress that elevates cortisol, and general metabolic slowdown. Bold Care's approach is to understand why your weight has changed.

What Bold Care does: Your provider will work with you on a nutritional approach built for older adults: not a crash diet, but sustainable eating that supports muscle maintenance and metabolic health. They'll look at the sleep-weight connection, stress-cortisol cycles, and movement patterns that support healthy metabolism at your age. This may also include specific guidance on protein intake, which is consistently underemphasized in older adults and critical to maintaining muscle and managing weight.

What this means for you: Gradual, sustainable weight changes that don't require a new prescription. More energy. Better blood sugar stability. Less joint strain from carrying less weight.

High cholesterol: A food-based approach to care

What's really going on: Cardiology guidelines from the American Heart Association and others recommend lifestyle changes as first-line treatment for many older adults. Soluble fiber, plant-based fats, reduced saturated fat, and regular aerobic exercise have each been shown in clinical research to meaningfully reduce high cholesterol.

What Bold Care does: Your provider will build a practical, personalized nutrition plan focused on specific dietary changes with the strongest evidence for cholesterol improvement. They'll pair this with a movement plan appropriate for your fitness level that supports overall cardiovascular health.

What this means for you: Whether or not you're already on a statin, lifestyle changes amplify their effectiveness, and often improve energy and overall cardiovascular health in ways medication alone doesn't.

Essential (primary) hypertension: The DASH approach and beyond

What's really going on: Primary hypertension (the kind not caused by an underlying condition) is often driven by lifestyle factors: excess sodium, low potassium, inactivity, excess weight, chronic stress, and poor sleep. 

What Bold Care does: Your provider will build a personalized plan grounded in the DASH diet — one of the most well-researched dietary approaches to blood pressure management. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. In practice, it means eating more of the foods that naturally lower blood pressure: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and low-fat dairy, which are rich in potassium, magnesium, and calcium. The DASH diet also means reducing consumption of foods that raise blood pressure: processed foods high in sodium, red meat, added sugars, and saturated fats. It's not a restrictive diet. Instead, it's a practical shift in what takes up most of your plate. Your Bold Care provider won't just hand you a food list. They'll help you figure out how to make these changes in the context of your actual life — what you cook, what you enjoy, what's realistic.

Beyond nutrition, your provider will also address the stress-blood pressure connection. Chronic stress keeps the nervous system in a low-grade fight-or-flight state that directly and persistently elevates blood pressure, a factor that dietary changes alone can't fully resolve.

What this means for you: Lower blood pressure readings you can track at home, and the knowledge that you're doing something concrete about one of the most manageable — and most ignored — risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

Back pain: Movement as medicine

What's really going on: Chronic back pain is one of the most common complaints of Bold members. The root causes of back pain can be due to many factors, including but not limited to muscle weakness, postural habits, excess weight adding load to the spine, inflammation from diet, and inactivity. Rest, counterintuitively, often makes back pain worse.

What Bold Care does: Your provider will work with you on a movement plan specifically designed for your situation — not generic stretches, but a structured approach to building the core strength, hip mobility, and spinal support that reduces mechanical load on the back. They may assess how your weight is contributing to pain, as well as sleep (poor sleep lowers pain tolerance) and stress (which increases muscle tension and amplifies pain signals).

What this means for you: Managing pain with daily activities. More confidence moving. Reduced reliance on pain medication for day-to-day management.

Stress and anxiety: The whole-body approach

What's really going on: Chronic stress is not just a mental health concern, it’s a physical state that raises blood pressure, disrupts sleep, increases weight gain, and impairs immune function. For older adults, stress often stems from specific life transitions (retirement, loss of a spouse or friend, changing family roles, health concerns, isolation) that traditional care appointments don’t have time to address. Bold Care providers are trained to explore these root causes.

What Bold Care does: Your provider will work with you on practical, evidence-based stress management strategies such as regular movement (one of the most effective stress interventions), sleep routines, breathing and relaxation techniques, nutrition patterns that reduce inflammatory stress responses, and social connection strategies. Bold Care does not provide therapy or psychiatric services, but can work alongside a mental health provider if you have one.

What this means for you: Calmer days. Better sleep. Less of the physical toll that chronic stress creates in the body.

Fatigue, malaise and sleep: the overlooked foundation

What's really going on: Persistent fatigue and poor sleep are among the most common complaints older adults bring to their doctors. Sleep quality naturally changes with age, but that doesn't mean poor sleep is inevitable or untreatable. Fatigue is often based on many different factors: disrupted sleep routines, nutritional gaps, and reduced activity. Many of these are directly addressable through lifestyle changes.

What Bold Care does: Your provider will conduct a thorough assessment of your sleep and energy patterns: what time you sleep, how you feel upon waking, what your energy curve looks like across the day, and what lifestyle factors may be disrupting your sleep or depleting your energy. They'll build a personalized sleep hygiene plan (light exposure, eating timing, movement timing, wind-down routines) and a nutrition plan that addresses common energy-depleting gaps. 

What this means for you: Waking up feeling more rested. More consistent energy across the day. Less reliance on caffeine to function. The kind of improvement that makes everything else — exercise, eating well, managing stress — feel more possible.

How this all works together

As you can see above, many of these conditions share root causes. A Bold Care provider isn't treating your hypertension and your sleep problems and your weight as three separate issues. They're looking at the whole picture and finding the interventions that affect multiple symptoms at once.

More than 95% of older adults have at least one chronic condition, and 80% have two or more. Bold Care is built for exactly that reality. You’ll leave with a care plan that addresses the habits underneath all of your conditions.

Book your appointment — it takes less than a minute to get started.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Does Bold Care replace my current medications? 

A: No. Bold Care providers do not prescribe or adjust medications. Any changes to your prescriptions should happen in conversation with your prescribing physician. Bold Care's role is to address the lifestyle factors that affect how your conditions behave.

Q: Do I need a referral from my doctor to use Bold Care?

A: No referral needed. You can book directly. Bold Care is covered under certain Original Medicare plans and many Medicare Advantage plans. 

Q: What if my condition isn't on this list? 

A: This list covers conditions Bold Care commonly supports, but it isn't exhaustive. If you're unsure whether Bold Care is right for your specific situation, call our Care Coordinators at (424) 577-5266 and we'll talk it through with you.

Q: I'm already working with a specialist for one of these conditions. Can Bold Care still help? 

A: Yes. Bold Care complements your existing care team,  it doesn't replace it. Your Bold provider can work alongside your specialist. 

Your conditions don't have to run your life

Are you ready to feel better and live bolder? Schedule a Bold Care appointment today. And for UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage members in California, your appointment is covered with a $0 copay.

Book your appointment — it takes less than a minute to get started.

Have questions or want to talk to a Care Coordinator before booking? We’re here: call us at (424) 577-5266 during 5am - 5pm PT, Monday-Friday. 

The information in this article is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Bold Care's healthy aging appointments focus on lifestyle-based interventions and do not include prescribing medications, ordering lab work, or adjusting existing treatment plans. Nothing in this article should be interpreted as a recommendation to start, stop, or change any medication or prescribed treatment. Always consult your physician or qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your care. Bold Care is not a replacement for your primary care provider or any specialist managing your conditions.