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“The Coronary Health Improvement Program” is the way of the future. Working in an area with a large focus on chronic disease I can’t help but be dismayed by the “lifestyle related” diseases that I see, nor the number of lives they claim each year. In this time of diabetes, renal failure and obesity epidemics, prevention, both primary and secondary is essential. CHIP hits right where needed and provides participants with the skills to be able to adjust their lifestyles in order to either prevent totally or improve the diseases of the 21st century. What a blessing that we have such a program available to us. The task ahead is to get people to embrace the principles of CHIP and go on to long and healthy lives.” Dr Cherelle Fitzclarence BMed(Hons) BMedSci(Hons) MPH DipObGyn,
Kimberley Satellite Dialysis Centre Medical Officer
Broome Regional Aboriginal Medical Service "With the burden of ill-health associated with heart disease, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obesity and cancer, CHIP is a program desperately needed by people in our communities. As one who has completed CHIP as a participant I can vouch for the validity and value of what the program teaches. It is challenging, easy, affordable and fun to implement. The results have been evident in programs run in Western Australia, NSW and Queensland since 2003 and now in New Zealand.
"CHIP teaches about better lifestyle choices and how to implement them through changes in diet, physical activity and smoking cessation. The information it provides has strong scientific backing. It builds understanding of cause and effect relationships with the lifestyle diseases. The practical help given in healthy food selection and food preparation is just what many need. The support the program offers is most beneficial. I recommend that all who are able to enroll for CHIP, do so. There are few, if any, who will not benefit from it.” Dr Christabelle Nath B.Sc.(MED) M.B.B.S. (UNSW) F.R.A.C.G.P The CHIP (Coronary Health Improvement Program) has been one of the best discoveries I have made as a primary care doctor trying to deal with the epidemic of lifestyle diseases I face every day in my family practice (these include coronary vessel disease and angina, diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis, gastric reflux, arthritis, sleep apnoea and obesity). CHIP has become a most effective way of dealing with these diseases with amazing results. It also has improved the wellbeing and quality of health for those who have embraced its principles and benefits have even been experienced by those over 75 yrs of age. A concept that doctors have believed for years is that patients seldom really make significant changes in their lifestyles which are sustained and effective therefore it is best to medicate in an upward spiral. Also doctors have very little nutritional knowledge and training and so often can be as ignorant as their patients when it comes to nutrition and health and what constitutes an optimal diet. CHIP is the tool I have found which has changed all of this. It is a scientific validated program, has been published in reputable medical journals, is brilliantly designed and presented by Dr H Diehl a leading public health researcher and educator in the USA. The CHIP program is well laid out and presented, supports lifestyle change as a personal choice and provides the necessary group support to affect this change. I have received numerous letters from medical specialists complementing the amazing changes and the sustained improvement in health parameters they are seeing in my patients who have become CHIPPERS. These include local specialists in Internal medicine, Endocrinology, Cardiology and Rheumatology. The local community and friends of CHIPPERS are also noticing the improvements and many have adopted the CHIP lifestyle despite having never attended the program. This program is powerful! What I have also appreciated is that this program is not another money making scam and is not making someone rich at the expense of the public. The programs are run as not for profit and as a community health project. W T Hurlow (MBChB, M Fam Med, Dip Obs and Gynae, FRCNZGP, Medical Director Southcare Medical Centre, Hawera NZ
Director Hauora Taranaki PHO, March, 2008
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