ACCESS
NEWS WIRE – for
PRESS RELEASE on Tuesday, 28. April 2026
A global consortium of 64 experts (72 entities, 5 continents)
unveiled two coordinated consensus
plus policy
brief reports, outlining a
science‑driven roadmap to confront escalating health crises and
to tackle the growing burden of noncommunicable diseases
(NCDs—including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, etc.:
75%
of global deaths; 82% in low-/middle income countries;
90%
of all death in European region).
The centerpiece is HEAL—Healthy Eating & Active Living,
ideally whole‑food plant‑predominant/vegetarian-vegan
diets & daily exercise outdoors/active mobility—as the minimum,
first‑line standard in health and care. The authors urge
immediate action on Prevention-over-Treatment and reforming education
and human‑relevant science (drug
failure rate from animal studies is 90-95%, and as high as 99.6% for
Alzheimer disease), with a rapid shift from
disease‑centered reaction to person‑centered,
lifestyle‑first cure and care.
Figure 1. HEAL means choosing a whole-food,
plant-predominant (ideally vegan) diets coupled with daily exercise
outdoors/in nature to kick-start better health. Credit:
iStock/LightFieldStudios.
“Sustainable health
is for free but cannot be downloaded or prescribed—it
must be lived
daily and earned
across lifetime through informed lifestyle choices, with
HEAL as starting point.
As childhood-entrenched
health literacy lasts a lifetime; embedding HEAL from primary to
tertiary education is the policy priority of our generation.” —Lead
author Katharina
Wirnitzer
| PHT,
University
of Innsbruck
& CCCTIM
Foto 2. Katharina Wirnitzer/Keynote on Vegan Diet in
Sports. Credit: ©Katharina Wirnitzer.
Why change is
imperative.
The paradox: Despite rising health spending and scientific
advances, public health gains lag while ever-growing NCDs. The
expert panel offers 101
consensus statements and a 10‑step
policy roadmap to act across the lifespan—from
individual behavior to population‑level change.
Why HEAL, and why now: HEAL combines Healthy Eating
(whole‑food, plant‑predominant; preferably
vegetarian/vegan) with Active Living (regular, ideally daily,
including outdoor activity and active mobility). Evidence shows
synergistic benefits beyond either alone, reducing reliance on drugs
and surgery while improving resilience and sustainability of health
systems.
Prevention-First (3:1): The reports recommend prioritizing
prevention, health maintenance, and health promotion over treatment
by 3:1 (Figure 3), making healthy choices the easy,
first‑line intervention and reserving medicalized treatment
for specific indications.
Education and workforce: Embed HEAL from primary through
tertiary education and continuously upskill healthcare and education
professionals to deliver evidence‑based lifestyle counseling,
routine assessment, and monitoring. Improve meal standards and
support active mobility in schools and public spaces.
Human‑relevant science: Accelerate the transition to
non‑animal, human‑relevant methods for basic and
preclinical research and for efficacy, safety and toxicity testing
through funding priorities, validation, and regulatory adoption.
Policy roadmap: Apply Health
in All Policies (HiAP)
to link individual choices with systemic supports (Figure
4); invest in supportive defaults (healthy public catering,
active transport, public‑space design, community HEAL
programs); embed HEAL in curricula; and track outcomes with robust
evaluation to scale what works.
“Every dollar/euro
invested in evidence-based prevention saves multiples in treatment.
HEAL is the smartest first investment a health system can make.”
—Bernd Haditsch |
ÖGK
– Austrian Health Insurance Fund,
Prevention
Unit
“Obesity is a disease
with powerful drivers. HEAL gives every patient a proven, first-line
foundation to reclaim their health.” —Fatima
Cody Stanford | Harvard Medical School & MGH
“A doctor who cannot
counsel patients on the Power of Lifestyle, especially on food and
movement, is
only half-equipped. Lifestyle education in medical school is the
missing foundation of modern medicine.
Helping our patients to eat a more plant-strong diet is the most
powerful healing medicine we can prescribe.”
—Michael
Klaper | Moving Medicine Forward
„Plant-forward
diets provide a powerful opportunity to concurrently improve health
and wellbeing for people, farmed animals and the environment.“
—Andrew
Knight | Griffith University
Figure 3. Four
areas-of-action, balanced 3:1, to achieve lifelong health.
Credit: ©Katharina Wirnitzer.
“Given its
cost-effectiveness, Traditional, Integrative, and Complementary
Medicine will be the evidence-based mainstream of tomorrow’s global
healthcare.” —Tomáš
Pfeiffer
| ITCIM
& SANATOR
“Treatment
alone will not sustain health systems. HEAL connects prevention,
lifestyle medicine and integrative care to advance salutogenesis on a
planetary scale. We must invest far more in creating health.”
—Georg
Seifert | WHO
CC
&
CCCTIM,
Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin
“The science clearly
shows that, when it comes to human health, animal protection is a
win-win.
Given human health’s
complexity, and since
animal
testing virtually fails to cure human diseases, human-relevant
methods already outperform animal experimentation and must therefore
be implemented with priority in science, with
funds going to human-focused research.
Citizens
in the EU and US have spoken clearly in favor of this transition.
HEAL can
prevent many diseases, avoiding the need for animal studies
altogether.“
—Merel Ritskes-Hoitinga |
Universities Aarhus & Utrecht;
Doris
Wilflingseder | Vetmed Uni Vienna,
Aysha Akhtar | Center
for Contemporary Sciences,
Corina Gericke & Gaby Neumann | Doctors
Against Animal Experiments
Figure 4. Systemic
application of HEAL to reach target groups and improve personal and
public health across micro (individuals/families), meso
(communities), and macro (state/government/federal policy) levels,
ensuring optimal vertical and horizontal permeability and
integration. Credit:
©Katharina Wirnitzer.
Key Actions at a Glance.
Make HEAL the universal starting point and minimum, first‑line
prevention standard.
Implement lifestyle‑first counseling before routine
prescriptions.
Prioritize Prevention-over-Treatment with an 3:1 balance.
Mandate lifestyle education in schools; embed HEAL across tertiary
programs.
Continuously upskill professionals for evidence‑based
lifestyle counseling and monitoring.
Accelerate adoption of human‑relevant methods to end animal
experiments in research, education and regulatory testing.
Figure 5. The Power of Lifestyle:
Start with the dual HEAL approach across 6
interconnected areas to
improve health and well-being. Credit: ©ACLM.
Graphic modification: ©Katharina Wirnitzer (permission: 24.11.2021).
Contact for further information
Katharina C. Wirnitzer—Professor
for Sports Public Health with a special focus on Child Public Health
Email: katharina@wirnitzer.at
| Cell: +43 (650) 5901794
University College of Teacher Education Tyrol (PHT), Innsbruck,
Austria
orcid.org/0000-0002-0192-8965
