Prevention is Cure Blog

Fitness is Medicine: Why It's Crucial for a Better Life   As a professor and researcher, part of my day-to-day job is thinking about fitness as medicine and how it impacts our overall health and wellbeing as we age. In particular, I'm interested in understanding...

How to improve the healthcare system What would it take for us to improve the healthcare system? Dr Glen Davies shares his views on how we can create a better version of the primary health care system by focussing on clients' needs and restoring their health. 1. Time...

How to be a better health coach At PREKURE, we often talk about taking off the training wheels and moving into building the craft of health coaching. You will have studied & practiced the foundational competencies and skill set in the marriage of lifestyle...

How to navigate a challenging coaching client Working alongside clients who seem unmotivated, resistant or you just don't gel with can be tricky. You can find yourself in the solutioning trap, pulling out all of your health coaching tools to gain traction, only to...

The big mistakes in our healthcare system. Why positive medicine is the answer.  Our current healthcare system needs to be transformed to focus on promoting health and wellbeing, rather than solely treating illness. Positive medicine offers a fresh approach that views...

Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Prevention. I recall during my early years of general practice asking my mentor “What do we actually do?” The answer was a good one, “We intervene in our patients lives, a little bit in each consultation”. A second experience was...

Top trends for healthcare in 2023   What do you see as the biggest trends likely to hit the healthcare sector in 2023?  1. The model in which healthcare operates is changing, this is an emerging trend in 2023 and beyond. We are moving away from a reactive dynamic...

Building a Confident Mindset A long while back when I was a junior Intensive care nurse (ICU) I had the mindset of ‘I could never…’ ‘I could never coordinate the intensive care unit’, ‘I could never educate people ’, ‘I could never jump from a helicopter into the...

To my fellow PREKURE coaches & students: I lay before you a challenge. You can of course accept, ignore, or modify this challenge. I challenge you to book a health coaching client in the next fortnight and undertake that coaching session whilst walking through...

Strengthening Your Reflective Practice At the heart of gaining growth and talent as a health coach, is reflective practice. Reflection has been widely emphasised in disciplines that require an integration of academic study or science and practical application (Lane...

The historical underpinnings of Motivational Interviewing (MI) come from the treatment and support of patients with substance use disorders. MI was originally developed in part by William Miller and Steph Rollnick in the 1980’s. Since then it has been widely evidenced...

Head Health Coach and Registered Nurse, Sonya English, sits down with recent graduate, Leina Fofoa, to discuss her experience and journey to become a PREKURE Certified Health Coach.   Leina, thank you so much for talking to me today about the Health Coach...

Head Health Coach and Registered Nurse, Sonya English, sits down with recent graduate, Anna Fatai, to discuss her experience and journey to become a PREKURE Certified Health Coach.   So Anna, you are one of our PMA Health Coach Certificate graduates. We're so...

As health coaches our success is in the joy of seeing our clients navigate their own health behaviour change confidently. We see ourselves as helping clients to explore their values and clarify their intentions. We work alongside them, holding steady the process and...

‘Intuition is not like the waves on the surface, it is more the tide beneath the waves’ (Dodgson & Marshall, 2018). It is the process of accessing and trusting one’s inner knowing. It is direct knowing, unencumbered by the thinking mind. The origins of the term...

Championing Your Client: Their Journey Towards Self-Efficacy Just like children, adults need support. Growth is solidified for all of us when we are genuinely championed. You may be familiar with the World Health Organisation (WHO) definition of health promotion:‘It...

Hello and welcome to PREKURE's weekly snippet of science, where on a weekly basis we share emergent research related to extending the human healthspan.   The obesity pandemic has been raging on for a few decades now. There are many theories about why this is...

Have you ever found yourself desperately trying to create meaning for your client?  You are: trying too hard to get some momentum when there is no clear focus, stuck knee-deep in a client's dissonance or all you can hear is your internal alarm sounding in your ears....

Hello and welcome to PREKURE's weekly snippet of science, where on a weekly basis we share emergent research related to extending the human healthspan. MAKING & BREAKING HABITS   The excitement of a new year seems to have worn off a little and we are now into...

Remember to balance hustle with patience! Understand what business phase you are in. In general terms there are four phases that any business goes through: 1. I'm just starting – customer discovery (no paying clients) 2. I'm working out if I have a product market fit...

What exactly is a Health Coach? Health coaching is an emerging field and a fast-growing market1,2,3. A Health Coach is someone who works in primary care or in the community in their own practice. A Health Coach provides clarity, they provide inspiration, but most...

One thing our PREKURE community has in common, is our shared love of learning. And what better time to dive into a new read, and learn something new, than over the summer break. Our top 15 must reads to kick start your 2022 from the PREKURE Faculty and team:The Better...

It’s estimated that more than half of all New Year's resolutions fail, but that doesn’t have to be the case for you this time. Here’s how to identify the right resolution for you; how to create a plan and how to reach it.   Dream big and enjoy the journey There’s...

It's been a massive week in the science surrounding COVID-19 with important studies published in both the Lancet and the British Medical Journal. PreKure's Chief Science Officer Prof Grant Schofield translates the latest studies and what they mean for you and your...

PreKure's Lead Coach, Sonya English, used to work at the bottom of the cliff in acute care medicine. Some days she feels guilt for leaving the healthcare system, but she has a strong belief that helping people find the knowledge and confidence to be the author or...

Coaching yourself is really hard. The reason is that we are so involved in our own lives, in our own emotions, and it’s difficult to be objective enough to coach yourself. You can think of it in a scenario where you can see clearly what someone else should do to be...

Exercise. Some of us thrive when we hear that word. Some of us cringe. It’s not strange that some of us are scared of it, because it's often got associated with visions of really intense and tough experiences, with people sweating heavily, struggling and grimacing....

On the delicate subject of vaccines….. I’ve resisted writing anything about COVID vaccines for a long time now. The main reasons are: 1. That any medical procedure is a personal decision weighed up on how the benefits to you and others weigh up to the harms to you and...

PreKure Faculty member and New Zealand Primary Health Care GP of the Year, Dr Glen Davies has, at the time of writing, reversed 124 cases of type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes. Health coaching is at the centre of helping and supporting people in changing their behaviour, alongside good nutrition, he says. 

It was a big night for PreKure, and the future of health, at the 2021 NZ Primary Health Care Awards! PreKure Faculty members, Dr Lily Fraser and Dr Glen Davies, were the two finalists for the GP of the year award. So we already knew we were winning!   GP of the...

Sleep. It’s amazing how this non-functional state, where we're out to the world and we're open to predation, or at least historically we have been, is so important. In fact, not going to sleep will harm your health quicker than anything else. Staying awake for the...

What is your reason for becoming a Health Coach? Because you are passionate about inspiring and helping people become the best they can be? Because a relative or friend is suffering from a chronic disease and you want to help? Because you want to add a whole-person...

PREKURE Certified Health Coach Vania Dunn talks about what health coaching is and what the coaching relationship - the strong relationship between coach and client - means to her. By Vania Dunn When I had not long started coaching, one of my friends sent me a message...

Today I want to talk to you about motivation and mistakes, because mistakes are inevitable, especially if you're on a weight loss journey. We are all going to make them. Whether it was yesterday, whether it's today, tomorrow or in the future, we're going to make...

If you are living in Auckland or if you're in Melbourne, we're back in lockdown. How are you feeling about it?   I was back to emotional eating.   I've got to tell you that I got a bit stressed when we went back into lockdown. I was back to emotional eating....

How to use social media to grow your business? Stephanie Moran, PreKure's IT platforms Manager, shares her top 5 tips.   1. Share your story – build a following  There are hundreds of thousands of coaches online. How do you stand out? Focus on your unique story...

Often in health coaching, ‘health’ is an end destination for people. It's to get somewhere. To counterbalance that, I encourage my clients to be healthy Bex’ or ‘healthy Lisa’ today. And what does that look like today? Let go of the expectation of a future need or a...

Build relationships PREKURE's Customer Care Advisor, Paula Ross, shares her top-5 tips for building great relationships, that will build your health coaching business. 1. Be genuine  Allow your authentic self to do the talking.  Be honest Be genuine Be you People...

Clinical Nutritionist Ben Warren talks about what's working against us when trying to lose weight. Why is it so hard to lose weight? There's a number of reasons for this. One of the first reasons is that calories are incredibly important for our survival. Through...

Clinical nutritionist Cliff Harvey shares his best tips for weight management. What are the key things we can do to be the healthiest and the happiest we can be, over the long term? Get strong This is one of the most important and under-appreciated points for managing...

What is a Health Coach and what do they do? PREKURE CEO Louise Schofield explains.PREKURE was established two years ago by a group of health and medical professionals, who really wanted to put prevention to the forefront of health care. We want a change from what is...

Weight loss is not just a destination, says Dr Carlo Bellini. It's what you do today that's going to empower you and get you there. How can we coach ourselves to lose weight? This is a challenging problem for so many people. Let me share with you my personal struggles...

Dr Glen Davies (GP) explains the mechanisms behind weight gain. What actually happens in the body? How can we lose weight, and keep it off?   Keen to lose some weight? Join PreKureME Weight Loss Edition. Working with the PreKure Faculty, we use the latest...

How can we stay in good shape, asks Prof Grant Schofield. Or, if you've put on a few kilos, how to get back to your fighting prime? For most of us, that's a daily struggle. Dr Peter Attia has an interesting framework around this, which I think is a great way of...

We put 10 of the most common nutrition questions to Prof Grant Schofield and Dr Caryn Zinn. Here’s question 7: Do stress and sleep affect what and how we eat?     Undoubtedly, these are two of the most untalked about, unrecognised behaviours in having a...

I saw this headline on CNN news - "New Zealand has come out of lockdown and gone to McDonald's." Let's deconstruct that. The first part that I want to share is, I have a bit of a penchant for Kentucky Fried Chicken. I think it's delicious. There are times in my life...

Prof Grant Schofield talks about coming out of lockdown and what the next steps are. Should we still be trying to eliminate an endemic virus? And why are we not talking about metabolic health? If we go back six weeks, we learnt that Covid-19 had spread outside of...

We are in a rapidly changing landscape. Dynamic would be an understatement. I think that the phrase, ‘In some decades we only move weeks, but in some weeks we move decades’, is absolutely appropriate for what we're seeing with the Covid-19 pandemic. Let's look at what...

It is Easter and this has got me thinking about a few things. Some people are getting cabin fever, they're feeling restricted and unsure about their emotions. Whether you are Christian, Muslim, Hindu or not religious at all, Easter is a cultural celebration in many...

Join PreKureME Lockdown Edition for some immune-boosting self-improvement in self-isolation.   Libby Jenkinson from Ditch the Carbs brings us a kids' cooking challenge (works just as well for adults too). Check out these chaffle recipes, and a free chaffle...

We need broader and more accurate testing, says Grant Schofield. I've been following the recent news with interest, particularly around the numbers of Covid-19 cases in different countries. In New Zealand, as most of you know, we’re in lockdown for four weeks, with a...

PreKure is launching a free 3-week challenge - PreKureME Lockdown Edition. This is a new take on PreKure's free behaviour-change programme PreKureME. Now more than ever, you’ll want to be focusing on prevention and your health. PreKureME Lockdown Edition is a 21-day...

Top tips to maintaining wellness for healthcare professionals. Your personal wellbeing is really important. The public of New Zealand needs YOU! Download your copy here.

Each day for the foreseeable future we here at PreKure are coming to you live at 8PM New Zealand-time on Facebook to talk about issues regarding COVID-19. Visit us on Facebook.   We've got time now to slow down. We've got time to spend with our families and our...

Each day for the foreseeable future we here at PreKure are coming to you live at 8PM New Zealand-time on Facebook to talk about issues regarding COVID-19. Visit us on Facebook.   In this video clip, Dr Carlo Bellini talks about the importance of leadership and...

That is the question that I think we should all be thinking very carefully about when we're thinking about COVID-19 and what it means for us. Exactly how dangerous is this thing? What does it mean for us? What should we do with the data we're receiving and should we...

Each day for the foreseeable future we here at PreKure are coming to you live at 8PM New Zealand-time on Facebook to talk about issues regarding COVID-19. Go to our Facebook page here.   In this video clip, Prof Grant Schofield talks about the latest findings...

Each day for the foreseeable future we here at PreKure are coming to you live at 8PM New Zealand-time on Facebook to talk about issues regarding COVID-19. Go to our Facebook page here.   Dr Catherine Crofts has been a pharmacist for over 20 years. Read her blog...

Each day for the foreseeable future we here at PreKure are coming to you live at 8PM New Zealand-time on Facebook to talk about issues regarding COVID-19. Go to our Facebook page here.   "The best advice I've heard is to act as if you have the virus. You then can...

The reality of the world we lived in doesn't exist anymore. It's going to be different. It may not be better, it might not be worse, it's just different. We humans are massively resilient and adaptable to this, and we will adapt, and we will do well in this, but we're...

- because it's the only tool we've got. Suppressing the spread of COVID-19 will give us much more capability in our hospitals to deal with sick people. And most importantly, it will buy us time to develop antivirals that work, or vaccines that work. Watch this video...

Each day for the foreseeable future we here at PreKure are coming to you live at 8PM New Zealand-time on Facebook to talk about issues regarding COVID-19. Go to our Facebook page here.   If you've been following the news, you'll have seen that globally there is...

Each day for the foreseeable future we here at PreKure are coming to you live at 8PM New Zealand-time on Facebook to talk about issues regarding COVID-19. Go to our Facebook page here.   Dr. Desiree Dickerson, PreKure’s clinical psychologist, is living in Spain...

"We need to consider the greater good here. This is a social justice issue"   PreKure's clinical psychologist, Dr Desiree Dickerson shares her very real experience from a locked-down Spain.   Each day for the foreseeable future we here at PreKure are coming...

Each day for the foreseeable future we here at PreKure are coming to you live at 8PM New Zealand-time on Facebook to talk about issues regarding COVID-19. Go to our Facebook page here.   Prof Grant Schofield talks to PreKure's Registered Nurse, Sonya English,...

I like to start with the 'why'. Simon Sinek is quite big in the business world, and he talks about if you started a new business or venture, actually – before you go very far – understand what the purpose is and why you want to do it. Sometimes when we talk about...

A power question is a question that is thought-provoking, and that gives power to conversations. We all have friends and acquaintances that, whenever you meet them, they just talk about themselves and you feel like you can't get a word in the conversation. Then there...

If people tell us that, 'look I've been following all the guidelines and I'm still gaining weight', what we do is we assume that they are lying. Isn't that just...? Doh! You know, as the doctor, we assume that they are lying. We blame the patient. You know, didn't we...

If you're just getting started in nutrition or health coaching, here is a great tip from Dr Caryn Zinn - practice and hone your consulting skills with friends or family to build you confidence. Start doing mock interviews! Watch the clip below from one of the...

Catherine Crofts went ‘off-grid’ to explore if and how her sleep changed when disconnected from the modern world. Find out what happened in her N=1 sleep study. We often hear the phrase “I’ll sleep when I am dead”, especially from people who are considered leaders....

Scientists – leave your ego at the door! “We have epidemics of diet-related disease that are threatening life expectancy, that are going to bankrupt the healthcare system. We need to get out of this egotistical debate about who’s right and who’s wrong, and try to work...

How Not to Get Cancer Richard Babor is an upper gastrointestinal and bariatric surgeon at Counties Manukau District Health Board. In his clinic, the question of how not to get cancer, or ‘why did I get cancer’ comes up a lot. Nobody is to blame for getting cancer. But...

Want to Save the Planet? Don’t Blame the Cows. Dr Robert Szabo, a Melbourne-based GP, started low carb clinic four years ago, helping patients who are looking to reverse insulin resistance and adopt a low carb diet to improve their health. He is also a well-researched...

The Future of Health “I think there is a massive opportunity for leaders within health to really open their minds about how we can do things differently.” Dr Carlo Bellini, PreKure’s Lead Coach, takes us on a journey from Perth to Oxford, from medical studies to...

Guest Blog Post by PreKure Health Coach Certificate Student: Michelle Bishop wellhealthyyou.nz My name is Michelle Bishop and I am a Certified Nutrition Coach and Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach based on the Hibiscus Coast north of Auckland. Ilove learning...

Brendan Reid: The Fat Ginger Nerd Brendan Reid isn't shy about starting the conversation on nutrition and lifestyle by sharing his life story. When he was born in 1978, he admits he was a big baby of nine pounds and six ounces. In the 80s he was one of the fat kids in...

By Professor Grant Schofield What happens when we sleep? Let’s have a look at the sleep cycles, particularly dream sleep vs deep sleep (or Rapid Eye Movement and non-REM) in humans and other animals. At the start of the night, you're in a light sleep. You're...

Welcome to the fifth episode of Flippin Health podcast! For this episode, we're joined by Dietitian Dr Caryn Zinn. Registered dietitian in New Zealand, a senior lecturer, and a clinical practitioner. She is also an author, alongside Professor Grant Schofield and Chef...

For the fourth episode of Flippin Health, George and Grant are joined by the "quiet change maker" Cliff Harvey. He's a researcher, clinical nutritionist, strength coach. He began with low-carb and keto diets back in 1998. He was also an athlete when he started out...

 For our first ever episode of the first season of the Flippin Health Podcast, we've got Grant Schofield and George Henderson on air. What exactly is Flippin Health? As Grant and George explain, Flippin Health is an arm of PreKure, which is a wordplay on "prevention...

By Brendan Reid, PreKure Certified Health Coach How did the journey to becoming a Health Coach start for me? I found that I had learned so much along the course of my own weight loss journey over the last few years. It very much mirrored what I had done with IT when I...

When I first walked into Harry's room in the intensive care unit on a morning shift, I could feel his palpable Mana. Harry was clearly a man of importance in his community. Many of his whānau were present and busying themselves tidying his belongings, anxious as to...

According to current New Zealand Ministry of Health data: overall people are living longer. However, the proportion of years people spend dependant on others owing to poor health, is increasing. Often, that poor health is spent incapacitated, attending frequent...

Great to see the American Medical Association recently endorsing Health Coaching in GP clinics. Change is happening and it is happening faster than we think. Lifestyle medicine is the medicine of the future. Health coaches are at the forefront of this...

If you’ve ever reached the end of the work day only to realise that you haven’t really done anything worthwhile today, here’s what you can do about it. If you are a stay-at-home mum or dad, loving it but also worried about standing still and stagnating with your...

Following on from John Tamihere's article last week in the NZ Herald 'New Zealand's healthcare fit for museum, not hospital' (https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/ar...) we wanted to share a video of our friend Cocksy again.Here he shares his thoughts on our...

Sleep is Medicine At PreKure we believe sleeping is good for you. We believe that regular good quality sleep increases your quantity and quality of life. Sleeping has both deep sleep and rem (dream) sleep. Both are critical for mental and physical health, and are...

Dr Catherine Crofts shares a great tip on how to have a refreshing drink that's a bit different this summer. Sugar-free, alcohol-free, and delicious!

Listen in as Tim asks Professor Grant Schofield about the top 5 lifestyle diseases in under 10 minutes. Cancer, CVD, Stroke, Diabetes, or Dementia...which one is coming for you? The big five killers of human life...what are they and what are their root...

Professor Grant Schofield has a powerful conversation with much-loved TV builder John 'Cocksy' Cocks about his battle with terminal cancer. When you are closer to death there is some very revealing information about how to live.