Mark Sainsbury and men’s health: Why do many Kiwi men treat their cars better than themselves?

Mark Sainsbury is a co-director and leading ambassador for Men's Health Week. Photo / Hagen Hopkins, New Zealand Woman's Weekly

OPINION

I love cars. Almost to the point of obsession. And I lavish care and attention on my cars. But you’ve got to wonder why for many guys, myself included, we treat our cars better than we treat ourselves.

We’ll get a WoF for our cars without question. But when was the last time you had a check-up and service on yourself? The theory’s the same. A warrant of fitness can spot possible troubles or problems ahead, and the earlier we address them the easier and cheaper it will be.

Funnily enough, the same goes for our health.

The reason I’m currently preoccupied with this is that along with my co-director Tim Greene, we have recently staged the Men’s Health Week public health awareness campaign.

It’s on every June, with the simple goal of trying to reduce the numbers and impact of preventable deaths on Kiwi men. Every three hours a New Zealand man dies of something that he didn’t need to die from, something that was, well, preventable.

Men already live shorter lives than women and with things like diabetes, heart disease, and suicide, we seriously outperform women when it comes to achieving bad outcomes. But here’s the good news – it doesn’t have to be this way.

It’s really clear things are tough out there for so many of us. The mental fragility caused by financial pressures, natural disasters, and loneliness is on the rise and gets worse every day. These stresses have a direct and negative impact on our health.

So for one week each June Men’s Health Week gets out and bangs the drum and spreads the message for guys to think about and start to make the small changes to their lives that can make such big differences to their health. Familiar, trusted faces become Men’s Health Week ambassadors, encouraging men to shake off their machismo, lose the excuses, and take more control over their own health.

They encourage their audiences to visit menshealthweek.co.nz where the ‘What’s Your Score?’ checklist gives a snapshot, just like a WoF, of the various checks that guys should be getting as we roll through life. But mostly they just encourage guys to be honest and it’s always easier from there. We could not have a campaign without these great people so they have our eternal thanks.

Mark Sainsbury with daughter Arabella. Photo / Supplied

At Men’s Health Week we don’t rattle the tin; we want your attention, not your money. Unstinting support from the Registered Master Builders (onboard since MHW arrived in New Zealand 14 years ago) and other sponsors mean we can focus on pushing the message as wide as we are able during our week in the sun.

One incredibly positive thing I’ve noticed since being involved in this awareness campaign is the willingness of major organisations such as the Heart Foundation, Prostate Cancer Foundation, Diabetes NZ and the Mental Health Foundation among many to hop under the MHW umbrella and amplify our key messages.

Workplaces are also embracing the week for employees, while the AA for the past two years has pushed important MHW messages (and the Man WoF) to more than 700,000 of their members. This is great and we hugely appreciate and applaud their enthusiasm, willingness and generosity.

Strangely there’s a bit of disconnect when it comes to men’s health in New Zealand. When it was first launched here 14 years ago, the government of the day leapt to the challenge and there was talk of a men’s health policy. We didn’t have one and still don’t have one, but Mongolia on the other hand does. But this is something the Centre for Men’s Health at Otago University is working on and who knows what may develop over the next year.

For every dollar spent on women’s health research, 6 cents is spent on research into the health of men. That’s not a criticism of women’s health spending, quite the opposite. Research is vitally important and you could argue even more should be spent on women, but it’s not a competition; it’s just that men’s health is often forgotten and too often by men themselves.

And therein lies the secret. We will continue to advocate for and encourage men to lead healthier lives, but it is encouraging, reminding and supporting each other that will make the changes.

So the next Men’s Health Week is a year away but don’t wait until then. Don’t become a statistic. Think about and make the small changes that can lead to a healthier life. Walk a little bit further, eat a little bit better, and while you can’t change everything overnight, small steps, small changes really do pay off.

Start today. Go over to menshealthweek.co.nz and get a jump start on next year’s campaign with “What’s Your Score?”.

And maybe start treating yourself as well as you treat your car.

* Broadcaster Mark Sainsbury is a co-director and leading ambassador for Men’s Health Week.