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Get A One-on-One Expert Health Coaching  To Help You Reach Your Health Goals Quicker 

Dr Edema provides personalised health coaching to help you achieve your health related goals faster. See why you need a health coach and how to book one here.

Health coaching in progress.Health coaching in progress with a patient.

Top performing athletes, successful business men and women, as well as many high achievers all have one thing in common. Yes. They have great coaches. 

The American Journal of Health Promotion published the findings of researchers who undertook an integrative review of 15 studies to assess the effectiveness of health coaching, in the article, Health Coaching to Improve Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors: An Integrative Review. 

They found "significant improvements in one or more of the behaviors of nutrition, physical activity, weight management, or medication adherence". 

A similar study reported in the Journal of American Board of Family Medicine concluded that health coaching helps in the achievement of improved health and weight control. 

The reasons are obvious. Especially if you suffer with a chronic health condition. A 10 to 20 minutes appointment with your physician, no matter how thorough it is, would hardly be enough to address all your health concerns, go through medications, lifestyle changes and challenges that you as a person may be facing with your particular condition. 

Over half of patients do not remember in significant detail, what they discuss during a visit to their healthcare provider. 

If you suffer with a chronic health challenge like:

  • Diabetes
  • Hypertension
  • Arthritis
  • Celiac disease
  • Uncontrolled acne
  • Asthma
  • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
  • Obesity and weight problems
  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Alcohol or drug addiction
  • Chronic pain
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Macular degeneration
  • Menopausal disturbances
  • Endometriosis
  • Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)
  • Abnormal menstrual bleeds
  • Erectile dysfunction
  • Bladder and urinary symptoms, etc,

you will do well to get a qualified medical or health coach. 

What Is Health Coaching?

A health coach pays attention to everything you need to help you get to your desired health goals quickly and safely.A health coach pays attention to everything you need to help you get to your desired health goals quickly and safely.

Health coaching is an emerging and necessary domain of care where patients are offered a one-on-one support and guidance by qualified healthcare professionals or well trained peers, to help them set and achieve their health related goal. 

The focus of a health or wellness coach is to ensure that the client gets the necessary knowledge, insight, skills, tools, confidence and guidance to understand as much as possible their illness and how to self-manage themselves for optimal outcome. 

It is like having a personal trainer or coach at your local gym.

The coach works with you to:

  • Establish in writing, where you are now in terms of your overall health
  • Determine your most pressing health priority you want to give attention to and why this has become import to you
  • Define exactly where you want to be in measurable metrics where possible - e.g, if you are looking to lose weight how many pounds or kilos you want to achieve and by what date, or if you are diabetic, exactly what HbA1c you want to see and by what date
  • Identify what could have been in your way to achieving your desired goal
  • Provide you with actionable information, steps and guides to help you towards achieving your goals
  • Regularly re-evaluate progress made and help identify resources to further help you in your agreed journey
  • Celebrate wins and progress along the way
  • Review knowledge, skills, attitudes and habits that you have now developed and how to ensure you truly have these deeply ingrained in you so you could maintain and sustain your achievements lifelong.  

Health coaching goes beyond following you up to see what changes you have made in your diet, exercise, lifestyle and behaviour. 

It involves:

  • Ensuring that you are getting the right medications prescribed and at the right time
  • Checking for side effects or interactions you might not be aware of
  • Exploring the possibility of you benefiting from other scientifically proven to work complementary medicines and procedures and having this discussed collaboratively with your healthcare provider for approval and trial where necessary
  • Looking for community tools and programs that could help leap-frog you to your desired health goals
  • Being there always for you and taking a personal interest in working with you until that well defined outcome you agreed upon is achieved and beyond. 

Benefits of Health Coaching

Wellness coachingA health and wellness coach helping a patient go through focused muscle strengthening exercise.

We are all acquainted with the Chinese proverb that says: "Give a boy a fish, you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish and you feed him for life".

How true that is, even more so, if you are battling with a chronic condition. Each time you walk into your doctor's office, it is like going in to get a fish - this time, your prescription and blood test result. If you are lucky, you also get a scratch on the surface information on your condition, why you have it, the implications for you and best treatment options, as time would permit.

Getting a personal health coach means you can spend more time with someone who could truly teach you "how to fish", learning all the tips and tricks and applying these to your particular situation. 

It is taking responsibility for your health and working intentionally to reach your desired health goals. 

The medical literature is full of benefits of wellness and health coaching. They include:

  • Better insight and understanding of your health situation than you would without a health coach
  • Improved compliance with your use of your medication and having sooner reviews of your meds if expected improvements are not achieved
  • Significant cost saving as treatment is more focused and monitored
  • Shorter time to achieving a desired health goal in many cases
  • Better overall outcome

The benefits of a good health coach cannot be quantified. The lifelong value, even after your desired goal is achieved in terms of new habits and outlook to health and life is priceless. 

Get a health and wellness coach even for a short time and try it for yourself. 

Who Can Be A Health Coach?

Doctors, nurses, medical assistants, physiotherapists, chiropractors, anyone with sufficient training, knowledge and interest in health coaching can be a health coach. 

But like in any profession, the more knowledgeable and experienced one is in the area of disease as well as coaching aptitude, the greater value they would bring you. 

We provide expert health coaching, as well as train coaches too. 

If you are looking for a one-on-one expert health coaching for yourself or your loved one, contact us now to discuss your requirement. 

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