After graduating from medical school (University of Cologne, Germany) in 2002, I commenced my post graduate training in anaesthesiology at the Tulane University of Louisiana in New Orleans. Owed to Hurricane Katrina it was necessary to relocate and I seized the opportunity to complete my residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Harvard University) in Boston. My initial inclination was to pursue a career in cardiovascular and thoracic anaesthesia and underwent fellowship training at the Texas Heart Institute (Baylor College of Medicine) in Houston. For visa related reasons I returned to Europe where I trained in critical care worked in adult and paediatric cardiac anaesthesia. In 2012 we decided to move to New Zealand where I first completed another fellowship in cardiothoracic anaesthesia and critical care before I accepted a permanent position as a consultant anaesthetist in a small rural hospital in the eastern Bay of Plenty.
Only then did I look beyond my “specialist horizon” and realised that applied human nutrition holds the key to better health and a sustainable healthcare system. The classic approach to medicine will always have its place and remains the last line of defence but primary prevention and chronic disease reversal with evidence based nutrition is equally important.