Recently we celebrated Lifestyle Medicine Week, collaborating with numerous experts in their respective fields. We were delighted with the opportunity to interview Dr. Mark Rowe, practicing family physician, founder of Waterford Health Park and an expert in positive health and lifestyle medicine! Mark talked about the encouragement and support he offers to help people make positive change, where we can close the gap between where we are right now and a better version of ourselves in terms of our health, wellbeing and vitality. There is a growing awareness of the importance of our lifestyle habits, and more and more evidence to suggest that our habits are key to living a happier and healthier life.

We also conducted a panel discussion with a talented panel of experts within their respective fields. Edelle O’Doherty-Nickels, a nutritional therapist and founder of Knowledge4Health, gave us insight into the importance of educating people on the value of a healthy, balanced diet and why we should reduce our intake of processed foods. She talked about the coaching aspect to provide individuals with the knowledge and ability to make these lifestyle changes. Edelle also brought to our attention the impact sitting down all day can have on our health and the significant negative impacts it can have.

Padraic Dunne, senior lecturer in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, immunologist and psychotherapist, discussed how not all stress is bad but how it is important to have only a healthy level of stress, where we don’t become distressed and overwhelmed. He mentioned how all the pillars of lifestyle medicine are intertwined and improving one aspect will benefit other pillars. As the body and mind are connected, too much stress can affect both your mental and physical health.

Ola El Garawany talked about how coming from a conventional medicine background as a pharmacist, she wanted to gain more knowledge and explore functional and lifestyle medicine in addition. She discussed how important a health coach is in the journey of making lifestyle changes, one may know vast amounts of knowledge however, to have someone to motivate you and reaffirm why making these changes are so beneficial, can have a huge impact.

Ilona Madden from RightFood4U kindly sat down to share with our viewers her insight into the important role nutrition plays in Lifestyle Medicine. Ilona talked about the struggles people have with implementing diet changes and how, as a nutritionist, she assists her clients in increasing energy levels. She also gives us insightful information about the impact sleep and stress has on diet and how they are all interlinked.

Check out HERE for the Webinar

Click HERE to see Ilona Madden talk about Nutrition

Click HERE to see the interview with Dr Mark Rowe