A New Zealand-born but American-based behavioural research expert has expressed his deep concern over the impact of diabetes on New Zealand society following the recent passing of Kingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII.

Dr Garry Welch, the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Connecticut-based Silver Fern Healthcare, commented on LinkedIn that the Māori King joins a long list of prominent New Zealanders who have died after a battle with heart disease and diabetes. He was 69.

Dr Welch offered his condolences to the family and said this sad event had caused him “to reflect on my father’s early death from heart disease at the age of 52 and that of my first clinical research mentor back in Wellington, Professor Eru Pomare, who was in his 50s when he died suddenly while out hiking.”

“I now know, as a clinical researcher here for 30 years in the US focused on metabolic syndrome and chronic conditions, that CVD is a truly preventable condition, but current medical treatments are now stuck in old science and do not focus on the root environmental causes of atherosclerosis, such as insulin resistance and oxidative stress principally from the modern global diet of ultra-processed foods and sugary drinks.”

He said he also reflected on all the other high-profile or famous New Zealanders lost to cardiovascular disease “way before their time.”

His list included Prince Tui Teka, Jonah Lomu, Billy T. James, David Lange, Paul Holmes, Bruce Mason, James K. Baxter, Phil Rudd, Maurice Shadbolt, Kevin Skinner, Phil Kingsley Jones, Inga Tuigamala, Jerry Collins, Sione Lauaki, Angela D’Audney, Linda Jones, Dolores McKeown, and many others.

Garry Welch, PhD, Co-Founder and chief scientific officer of Silver Fern Healthcare, is a foremost expert in behaviour medicine for chronic disease care. He has extensive experience leading clinical research on behaviour change strategies for people with diabetes and other chronic diseases.

He said this was “a good time to reflect on those we have needlessly lost to CVD and then roll our sleeves up and change the global food and healthcare systems that are driving insulin resistance, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and CVD. We need strong partnerships to do this.”

Dr Welch says we can start this journey by collecting the new clinical data that shines a light on the problem of insulin resistance (IR) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) driving CVD

The next step would be to teach people that CVD and related conditions are not ‘chronic, lifelong diseases’ as they have been “falsely told” and best treated with costly medications and medical procedures – but preventable conditions that can be put into remission in a matter of months or can be significantly improved with less medications through an intense lifestyle focus on IR and NAFLD.

“Families and communities can and will do this work if we help them. We must shape the business practices of the food industry to make money selling healthy foods, not junk.”

Dr Welch has taken significant steps in the US to turn his vision into reality. As the co-founder of Silver Fern Healthcare, he and his team have developed an online behaviour diagnostic platform that can be professionally integrated as a whole-person care solution.

In the broader sense, Dr Welch is on a mission to leverage his network and relationships to create a collaboration between healthcare systems in both New Zealand and the United States, enabling wisdom and insights to be shared collectively across both countries.