Improving Wellness in the South Pacific
The coming week marks some pioneering events in the South Pacific, hosted by Fiji. The first is the inaugural South Pacific Society of Lifestyle Medicine (SPSLM) Conference, after the formation of SPSLM recently. The theme of this conference is “Turning the Tide on NCDs – It Starts With Us.” This is quite appropriate in terms of behavior change, which is one of the cornerstones of lifestyle medicine.
Alchemus Prime’s (we)llness advisor, Dr. Margaret Cornelius will be presenting on her own wellness journey, for the very first time, sharing her remarkable transformation from stress and illness to boundless energy and flourishing wellness using a whole foods plant-based diet, exercise, life coaching, and meditation.
Another first is the inaugural batch of freshly minted and certified Lifestyle Medicine Practitioners who will take their board exams and graduate next week. I’m very proud to add that Dr. Margaret will be one of those graduates, after six months of diligent study.
As we continue to work on addressing lifestyle diseases here in the South Pacific, it’s important to shift gears to a wellness approach, instead of pushing drugs, which hasn’t worked well thus far, as we explained in our Beyond Medicine series. A holistic approach is needed, which supports each suffering person emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and socially, not only physically. We are on our way.
