Why healthy living can be 'a challenge' in the land of fish & chips
People need to take responsibility for their own health, says cardiologist
In 2011, Mark Hiscock weighed more than 400 pounds and couldn't get life insurance.
That's when Hiscock, a familiar face in Newfoundland and Labrador as a key member of the traditional music group Shanneyganock, decided he had to get healthy, and started walking.
After losing more than 120 pounds, Hiscock admits he went "off track," and has found that it's a battle to lose weight in the first place and then keep it off.
"It's a challenge, especially living in Newfoundland," Hiscock said in an interview.
"You're surrounded by bad weather, bad eating. You know, everybody loves their Jiggs dinners and their salt beef and fish and chips and all that stuff," he said.
"It's a hard province to try and continue a weight loss journey," said Hiscock.
'Bad habits'
Newfoundland and Labrador has been struggling with chronic health problems like obesity for many years. A report from the province's largest health authority says the province's residents are not living as many healthy years as the average Canadian, and it could be partly because of the local lifestyle.
The province has the highest rates of heart disease and diabetes, and almost 30 per cent of the population is obese.
There's nothing magic about the Newfoundland gene pool but we have adopted all of these bad habits.- Dr. Sean Connors
It's a statistic that St. John's cardiologist Sean Connors sees as getting worse, not better.
"There's nothing magic about the Newfoundland gene pool but we have adopted all of these bad habits," said Connors.
"If you're overweight and you smoke and you have high blood pressure and your cholesterol's on bust, usually it's just a matter of time before you start to end up with heart trouble."
Connors, who puts his patients through stress tests to look for heart problems, said that while rates of heart disease are the highest in the country, the number of diagnostic tests ordered in Newfoundland and Labrador is comparatively low.
Connors says patients need to change their risk factors, but warns the medical system also must change in order to engage "cardiac testing upstream."
"We see you when you come through the doors with your heart attack. We'd like to see you much earlier than that," Connors said.
Newfoundland and Labrador already spends more on health per person than any other province in Canada. Connors thinks the system would improve with earlier interventions that could curb heart disease — and the cost of treating it.
"If a family doctor really thinks a patient's at high risk, let's not wait until they have chest pain and a heart attack. Lets allow that GP [general practitioner] to have access to timely and early diagnostic testing."
Connors said medical interventions will only help, though, if people first change their attitudes towards healthy living and also take responsibility for their own health.
Back to basics
Hiscock agrees with Connors, and said it was a lifestyle change that allowed him to lose weight.
He was portioning and making healthier meal choices while keeping active by walking up to 12 kilometres a day, adding that physical activity needs to be a bigger priority with youth.
"I just found out recently that physical education is not a mandatory activity in school anymore ... they have to get back to the basics with the kids," he said.
Just do it, get out there, start walking, get off the couch.- Mark Hiscock
Hiscock has resumed walking to get his weight down and knows the effort is worth the result.
"Just do it, get out there, start walking, get off the couch," he said.
"It's a lifestyle ... and as long as you have that frame of mind, you will conquer."