Dr Mark Craig, MD Lifestyle Medicine and General Practitioner Doctor
FRNZCGP MRCGP (Eng) MRCS (Eng) MBChB BSc IBLM
My main passion in medicine is to use the most up to date scientific evidence to help treat, minimise and even reverse the impact of the main diseases prevalent today, which have been shown to be largely due to our modern lifestyle habits. I become very aware, as a hospital doctor and then a GP, of seeing the same medical issues again and again and discovering that most are due to our lifestyles.
I have worked as a General Practitioner doctor, am a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of General Practitioners of New Zealand and the UK, a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of the England, having trained in the UK in Surgery and then General Practice, and a International Board Certified Lifestyle Medicine Physician (IBLM).
My frustration after working in the mainstream medical system for many years is that there is not the time nor set up to be able to work with patients to facilitate sustainable health habit changes and discuss all pertinent issues adequately. Hence I currently work now in a consulting capacity, with longer appointments of an hour or longer initially, but which works out more economically than the revolving door of standard short doctor consults.
I come from the background of a ‘conventional’ doctor (as opposed to functional or integrative) and utilise this latest scientific evidence, in conjunction with established standard beneficial pharmaceutical medicines and procedures where necessary, to achieve the best results.
A typical client consultation involves an assessment of your medical history, diet, and other lifestyle factors and understanding you as a person, in order to recommend the best plan to address a condition or improve overall health. I will answer any questions you may have and ensure you understand the rationale for treatment recommendations and are happy to proceed.
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Mark is well known in the lifestyle medicine and plant-based community and is an articulate, knowledgeable, and compassionate individual. He often speaks at lifestyle and nutrition meetings and has been featured in the NZ media several times. He has recently been involved in the NZ Covid response, being a medical officer in the MIQ quarantine facilities and PaRCH Pacific Covid response hub team, where he has seen first hand the effects of chronic diseases on Covid outcomes. He is vice chairperson of Evidence Based Eating New Zealand (ebe.nz), a healthy plant centred diet advocacy and educational charitable trust, which puts on events and talks regularly.
As a plant-based athlete, he competes regularly in triathlon, biking and swimming sports events at a local and international age group level, and has undertaken medical elective work in Malawi and southern India. He is also raising two thriving plant based children.
