Northern Health is challenging local residents to eat better, be more active and engage in less risky behaviour.
The agency launched its September healthy living challenge with the aim of promoting lifestyle changes and increasing awareness about best practices surrounding personal health. Participants will be able to win prizes by completing a series of weekly challenges.
Chief medical health officer Dr. Ronald Chapman said Northern Health is looking to find ways to reduce the high number of chronic illnesses and cancer in the region, so it began studying the root causes of the diseases. It found some of the common risk factors include physical inactivity, unhealthy eating, smoking, alcohol abuse and risky behaviours.
The agency then began working on position papers on the various behavioural risk factors last fall to get more information on what people can do to live healthier and lower their risk of getting one of the diseases. The papers were completed in the spring and Chapman said the research showed that by making some simple lifestyle changes, it can result in significant health benefits.
"If you are up to or in excess of 150 minutes per week of moderate physical activity, you can actually reduce your risk of various cancers and as well as chronic disease by up to about a third," he said, citing one example. "It is quite staggering."
The healthy living challenge is a way for Northern Health to get people to try to take the information from the seven position papers and integrate it into their daily lives.
The first challenge is centered around a recipe for "man cave chowder." Northern Health has posted a video of the dish being prepared and are encouraging others to make the same meal. Anyone who submits a photo of themselves making the chowder by Tuesday will be eligible to be entered into a draw to win a camping stove.
Upcoming challenges will involve doing something to be healthy at work, to be healthy with the family and kids and to be healthy in the community.
The idea came out of the March MANess challenge Northern Health ran earlier this year, which pitted Chapman against medical health officer Dr. David Bowering in a series of healthy living competitons.
"People like that is a bit of a different way of engaging the public and using new mediums like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to really engage with folks around health topics and ways to implement those principles in their everyday life," Northern Health men's health co-ordinator Brandon Grant said.
Grant and a team from Northern Health came up with the idea of creating the challenge and he said September is the right time for people to evaluate their level of healthy behaviour.
"It's a great time of year, people are getting back into their routines with kids getting back to school," he said. "I think it's a really great time for folks to get re-engaged again."
The details on the challenge are available at blog.northernhealth.ca.
