PhD pULse podcast. This week - Megan Curran

PhD pULse #33 features Megan Curran discussing why lifestyle medicine could change how rheumatic and musculo-skeletal diseases are managed

What if the missing piece in chronic disease care is not just medication, but a better way to help people sustain healthy habits? 

Megan Curran, a second-year PhD candidate in the School of Allied Health, is building a lifestyle medicine intervention designed to support people living with rheumatic and musculo-skeletal diseases through practical, patient-centred care.

Megan’s research starts with a simple but powerful problem: people are often told to eat better, move more, sleep well, and reduce risk factors, but real life often gets in the way. Megan explains why that advice is much harder to follow when you are dealing with pain, fatigue, mobility challenges, and the pressure of everyday life, and why healthcare professionals need better tools and time to have meaningful conversations about lifestyle.

When listening to this podcast you’ll discover:

• Why lifestyle medicine goes far beyond nutrition, and how its six pillars* are being applied in chronic disease care
• What Megan’s systematic review found about the current evidence for lifestyle medicine in rheumatic and musculo-skeletal diseases
• How co-design is shaping her intervention by bringing patients, carers, healthcare professionals, and researchers into the process
• Why group consultations may offer both expert support and the peer connection many people say they are missing
• The practical challenges of recruiting participants and adapting research to participants’ needs.

Megan also outlines the personal and academic path that led her here, from public health nutrition to seeing first-hand how these conditions affect work, family life, and mental wellbeing. She also talks candidly about the barriers that make behavioural change difficult, and why a feasibility and acceptability test is the crucial next step. 

If you are interested in any aspect of doctoral research, healthcare innovation, behavioural change, or the future of chronic disease management, this podcast is packed with insight. 

It is especially valuable for anyone working in allied health, lifestyle medicine, or patient-centred care, and for doctoral researchers looking for encouragement, perspective, and practical advice on staying confident through their PhD journey.

 * Optimal nutrition, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, positive social connections