Dr Sean Owens is a pharmacist and doctor with an interest in nutrition, lifestyle medicine, and planetary health. Hailing from County Down, Sean initially studied pharmacy at Queens University Belfast before relocating to Dublin to practice community pharmacy in 2005. In 2010 Sean elected to study graduate entry medicine in UCD Dublin, 2010-2014 and has recently graduated from the North East GP Training Scheme. Sean has additional diplomas in Lifestyle Medicine and Women’s Health.

“Over the last 10 years I have been on a journey from community pharmacy to acute hospitals medicine and then back to the community in general practice. The commonality in my working life has been the tsunami of chronic disease that is predominantly driven by social determinants of health and lifestyle. That is to say, as healthcare professionals we are busier year on year because modern life is making us slowly but surely ill. Lack of sleep, lack of social connection, lack of exercise, smoking, poor food choices, excess alcohol and cumulative stress are all major modifiable risk factors for the common chronic diseases we see day in and out. The pill for every ill model of healthcare can’t cope with the volume of chronic disease we are facing, and this is where lifestyle medicine comes in. There is a wealth of evidence based techniques for how to engage with your patients to make small, lasting and cumulative changes in lifestyle that can have measurable and often dramatic changes in their health. Lifestyle Medicine is so rewarding for a number of reasons; it offers holistic solutions to your patients needs, there are positive spin offs for friends and family, it speaks to our vocation to find the root cause of the patient’s health issues, there is a novel and fast evolving evidence base, and much more. I would encourage other healthcare professionals to join up, get certification and start bringing this into your consultations."