Aug 24 2024 53 mins
In this episode, I had the supreme pleasure of talking to Dr Peter Brukner.
Dr Brukner - or, more accurately, Peter Brukner OAM, MBBS, D Sc(honoris causa), FACSEP, FASMF, FACSM, FFSEM - is a world-renowned medical doctor and specialist sports and exercise medicine physician.
Peter has had two passions during this medical career. The first was sports medicine. He is a world-renowned sports medicine clinician and researcher who was the founding partner at the Olympic Park Sports Medicine Centre in Melbourne, was a founding executive member of and has served two terms as president of the Australasian College of Sports Physicians, is the co-author of the ‘bible’ of sports medicine Brukner & Khan’s Clinical Sports Medicine, and has been team doctor to amateur and professional sporting teams such as Melbourne and Collingwood (AFL), national swimming, hockey, athletics, soccer, and cricket teams as well as Liverpool Football Club in the English Premier league. Whew!
Peter’s second passion, which has developed over the last few years, is nutrition. He believes that most of what we have been told about what to eat over the last 40 years has been wrong and this misunderstanding has contributed to epidemics of obesity and chronic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes. To address this misunderstanding he has founded and chaired the SugarByHalf campaign and has authored the popular book A Fat Lot of Good. You can find out all about the nutrition side of Peter’s career at the Fat Lot of Good website. He is currently Professor of Sports Medicine at La Trobe University in Melbourne.
There is a lot I discovered about Peter that usually goes under the radar.
We talk about the origins of setting up a sports physician specialist classification within the medical framework, the Olympic Park Sports Medicine clinic - a one-of-a-kind back in the day - and the origins of the Bible Clinical Sports Medicine - a three-volume text that's in its sixth edition.
His journey in touring with sports teams, being invited to work at English Premier League club Liverpool FC, Sydney 2000 with Cathy Freeman, Australian Cricket Team and his journey and passion in nutrition and so much more are all fascinating to hear. And, as a lover of trigger points, he has been an incredible supporter of soft tissue therapy.
Peter is one of our most eminent Australian sports physicians and has walked the long road and seen it all. More importantly, he's an incredibly generous man! His passion takes hold with very little prompting. I loved listening to him and I'm sure you will too.