Health program promotes lifestyle changes

There are 29 healthier people in Yorkton this week.

On April 3, the group of 25 women and four men graduated from the 2013 Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP).

CHIP is a community health initiative designed by Dr. Hans Diehl, the dynamic director of the Loma Linda, California Lifestyle Medicine Institute (LMI).

Facilitated in Yorkton by volunteer director Glenda Nischuk, a Registered Nutritional Consulting Practitioner, it is a six-week program focused on reversing or normalizing the effects of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, osteoporosis and digestion problems by coaching people to make major, sustainable lifestyle changes.

CHIP claims extraordinary success rates. For example, in a study Diehl conducted with 2,500 people in Vernon B.C., he found 93 per cent of participants had maintained their weight loss after one year compared to a 90 per cent relapse rate of many other weight loss programs.

Nischuk said the reason for the program's remarkable numbers are simple.

"The key to the success of the CHIP program is there is a coach right there and it is community-based," she said.

The benefits of those two elements of the program, she added, are it is cost-effective; there is followup, which includes Club CHIP, a monthly get-together for grads; and because it is conducted in a classroom setting, the students develop strong camaraderie and often ongoing friendships that help keep them on the wagon.

"That's their support system," Nischuk said.

Nischuk got involved with the program because of her own health.

"Ten years ago, I was one ill lady," she said. "That's what got me interested in doing what I do. Most of us spend 30 years dying, but if you can start putting that the other way, it takes a lot of time, but it does go the other way."

She trained to be a facilitator and five years ago finally got the local program up and running with the help of her husband Lornen, a local chiropractor.

At the beginning of the program, participants are assessed for weight, body mass index, cholesterol, blood pressure and fasting blood glucose so progress can be measured and students can see how the lifestyle changes impact these critical medical markers.

They receive a kit that includes a pedometer, textbook, cookbook and journal. Twice a week in 90-minute sessions, they learn how the body works, how to make healthy choices, participate in food preparation workshops and exercise.

When not in class, students are encouraged to walk 10,000 steps per day and pay attention the food choices they make.

At its graduation banquet, April 3 at Yorkton Seventh Day Adventist Church, Nischuk revealed the final statistics. As a whole the class reduced its cholesterol by an average of 12.9 per cent and dropped a total of 193 pounds. Those who had dangerous or high blood pressure had all dropped into the high normal range.

Lornen demonstrated how many steps the students had walked by tracking the equivalence on a map of Canada that went from Yorkton to Nunavut, across the top of Hudson's Bay, down through Newfoundland and Labrador, through Quebec to southern Ontario, back up to Jame's Bay then back to Yorkton.

Nischuk said one man, who could barely walk when the class started, was now well enough that he would be travelling to his son's wedding, which six weeks ago he was planning on missing.

She said those kinds of stories are the most satisfying part of her role in the program.

The class showed their appreciation to the couple by presenting them with a weekend at Temple Gardens Spa in Moose Jaw.