Guys - look after yourselves as well
“You’re no good to anyone else unless you’re good to yourself first”
That’s the message MHW Ambassador Oscar Kightley has for guys this Men’s Health Week.
“While you’re taking care of everyone in your life, and your life, remember to get yourself checked out too”.
Oscar says that the bad statistics and shorter life spans Pasifika and Māori guys face means we have to work to be “our best advocates for ourselves in terms of looking after our health”.
Approaching 50, Oscar recounted his earlier and certainly less healthy lifestyle, and reflects that the wisdom of age actually means things are reaching the stage where they aren’t working as well as intended.
“We’re supposed to live 10 years less, so that’s even more onus on and even more urgency for us to actually, at a younger age, look at our health.
Some pretty real NZ stats back Oscar’s call to get onto health matters early. In 2024, 43% of male Pasifika deaths in NZ were guys under 65, and even worse, 48% of Māori male deaths were guys similarly below the pension age.
Turning horrible stats like these around requires changes both huge and small. The huge ones need to come from a health system that seemingly generates different outcomes for different ethnicities, but the small changes need to come from us.
Start with small changes to what we eat, drink, and maybe smoke, then adding exercise to the mix and you’re away. Small steps can lead to big changes, and as Oscar says, better at “taking care of everyone in your life, and your life”.
