The Lifshitz theory can be expressed as an effective Hamaker constant in the van der Waals theory.
Consider, for example, the interaction between an ion of charge , and a nonpolar molecule with polarizability  at distance . In a medium with dielectric constant , the interaction energy between a charge and an electric dipole  is given by
with the dipole moment of the polarizable molecule given by , where   is the strength of the electric field at distance  from the ion. According to Coulomb's law:
so we may write the interaction energy as
Consider now, how the interaction energy will change if the right hand molecule is replaced with a medium of density  of such molecules. According to the "classical" van der Waals theory, the total force will simply be the summation over individual molecules. Integrating over the volume of the medium (see the third figure), we might expect the total interaction energy with the charge to be
But this result cannot be correct, since It is well known that a charge  in a medium of dielectric constant  at a distance  from the plane surface of a second medium of dielectric constant  experiences a force as if there were an image charge of strength  at distance D on the other side of the boundary. The force between the real and image charges must then be
and the energy, therefore
Equating the two expressions for the energy, we define a new effective polarizability that must obey
Similarly, replacing the real charge  with a medium of density  and polarizability  gives an expression for . Using these two relations, we may restate our theory in terms of an effective Hamaker constant. Specifically, using McLachlan's generalized theory of VDW forces the Hamaker constant for an interaction potential of the form    between two bodies at temperature  is
with , where  and  are Boltzmanns and Plancks constants correspondingly. Inserting our relations for  and approximating the sum as an integral , the effective Hamaker constant in the Lifshitz theory may be approximated as
We note that  are real functions, and are related to measurable properties of the medium; thus, the Hamaker constant in the Lifshitz theory can be expressed in terms of observable properties of the physical system.