Welcome, my name's Dr. Warrick Bishop. I'm a cardiologist, an author and a keynote speaker. I'm CEO of the Healthy Heart Network. I'm all about trying to help people live as well as possible for as long as possible. Heart disease is huge in Australia. Every 20 minutes someone suffers a heart attack. Most of these could probably have been avoided if only we knew what to do. This podcast is all about helping you understand. blood pressure, weight, cholesterol for better health. If you enjoy this podcast, I would be honoured for a five-star review. You can share it with your family and friends. It may well save someone you love. G'day and this is Warrick Bishop and welcome to my podcast and videocast. station. Today I have the privilege of interviewing Barry Elvish who's the current CEO of AusActive but that's on a background of nearly 20 odd years in the not-for-profit area. His background has been education but now it's focused on the fitness industry. Welcome Barry, how are you? Good morning Warrick and good to be with you today. Look I really appreciate your time. As always I'm privileged when I have guests who run busy organisations and have busy lives if they make a few minutes just to share. So I really do appreciate it. Look, a couple of things. For those who are listening who may not know what AusActive is, do you want to just run through what AusActive is as an organisation and what their sort of mission and objectives are? Sure. Look, so AusActive is a not-for-profit industry association. We have members from businesses that operate in the physical activity, exercise and fitness sector, so that includes your traditional gym, leisure centres, Pilates, yoga studios, et cetera. We have probably almost 3,000 businesses as members and we have over 10,000 individuals who work in those facilities as personal trainers, group exercise leaders, aqua instructors, Pilates teachers, yogis, et cetera. Industry Association, whose prime role is to advocate on behalf of the sector to government at all levels. Our prime, I guess, motivation for existence, Warrick, is to get more Australians more active more often. Not necessarily going to a gym or a yoga studio, but just getting off their backsides. We know in this country that we have an appalling rate of chronic disease, overweight, obesity, the things that you're an expert on. And we think that we need to get Australians moving more often and doing exercise that they like. When I hear people say they don't like exercise, my response is you've chosen the wrong exercise. There is always something for everybody out there. Yeah, 100%. Barry, I think one of the, obviously, as you've alluded to, I speak with patients regularly about trying to find some sort of movement. And I agree with you. It doesn't really matter as much what it is as long as it's done. And number one, two and three is you've got to find something you enjoy because if you don't enjoy it, you won't do it. And if you don't do it, it doesn't work. So, you know, it is a significant thing. Look, the disclosure here is that you and I have met before and we've had the chance to meet at a roundtable trying to discuss one of the initiatives that AusActive is. looking to advance on a national basis. And that's the One Million Moves campaign. I felt really privileged actually to be part of that roundtable and to be in a position to potentially advance it. But why don't you speak to that? Because I think it's a great initiative and something that I'd really like people more broadly to be aware of. So A Million Moves came out of a program we started two years ago with the federal government called Fit for Office. It was a play on words, and we wanted politicians to prove that they were fit for office. We hear them bagging each other in the media and so on. So the first year we had about 25 politicians involved. Last year we had 40 politicians involved. And over a 21-day period, they compete in a friendly competition against each other to see who is the fittest. So they wear wearable technology and they get a point for every activity they do. Coming out of that, we had a request from one particular participant who wanted to run a campaign. in the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, along with three of his colleagues. It was called A Million Moves. It ran for 21 days. And it was encouraging members of the community, again, as we were saying before, to do any exercise they like. So that could be swimming, cycling, surfing, walking. It doesn't matter. Going to a gym as well, of course. And we had 1,400 people participating in that. Had a very quick start-up, very low budget, a very successful event. As a result of that success, the Queensland government has given us money to run statewide in Queensland this year a million moves, but also we've been lucky to secure funding from the West Australian government for the next three years to run a million moves there in that state as well. So in September this year, in both Queensland and WA, we will be encouraging members of the community to get out and do, as I said, any exercise. Whatever they choose to do, and as you've indicated, if they're not enjoying it, choose something else. And the idea is that over 21 days, people that will try and do 75 moves a day. Now, what's a move? A move could be a squat. A move could be going on a 7.5K walk. It could be swimming 750 metres, whatever. And that's important because that's the amount of moves that we need through the World Health Organisation to actually change our habits, change our behaviours. People do that for 21 days and hopefully they'll continue doing it forever and a day, basically. So it's a community activation program where we encourage people, particularly those that haven't exercised in the past, to think about doing something through a whole range of different activities, which we will make available to them. We will publicise things. It could be parkrun, it could be a bushwalk, it could be a cycle group, whatever. But just encouraging people to give it a go, just get off that backside and give it a go. A noble aspiration, no question about that. So there might be people listening who are thinking, well, you know, why do I bother with all this exercise? Why do people make such a big cheese of it? I'm pretty comfortable. I feel all right. I can walk to work. I can take the elevator. You know, I just, what's the point? So if you were trying to explain to someone the benefits of exercise, Barry, what would you tell them? Well, it's very clear, Warrick, and I guess I've been practising this without knowing it for many, many years. But if we look at the average lifespan, I'm an Australian, and we'll average it out between males and females, it's between 81 and 83 years. And if you don't believe that, just check the funeral notices in the paper on a weekend. You'll see that that comes out about 81, 83. And people may be at home or listen to this and think, well, that's OK. I'm only 60, I'm only 70, I'm only 50, whatever. I've got X number of years left. What people don't understand is that the average lifespan compared to the average healthy lifespan is two different things. And the average healthy lifespan of Australians is 10 or 11 years less than that 81 years. So in that last 10 or 11 years, we actually deteriorate. And we deteriorate pretty rapidly, both mentally and physically, whether it be chronic disease, whether it be dementia, whether it be cancer, whatever it is. And the evidence is overwhelming. It is not debatable. The best way of mitigating and extending your healthy lifespan so that we get to say 80, 81, then we drop off the perch rather than we spend 10, 11 years sort of wobbling on the perch. The best way of doing that is to exercise. And you can exercise as we've been talking about on any way of doing things, even getting out and doing gardening is exercise. The other beauty of exercise, Warrick, which I can certainly vouch for myself, is the social connection it gives you. Two good things come out of that social connection. It inspires you to maintain an exercise regime because you feel obligated to go and meet your mates or for your bike ride, your swim, whatever, and then have a coffee afterwards and you can talk about all kinds of things. That social connection is critically important. for your mental well-being as well, and especially for us males. As we get older and we go into retirement, unfortunately, older males have a higher suicide rate than older females do. Our lifespan is shorter. We don't spend time, and there's a whole lot of reasons for this we won't go into today. But as males, we don't spend time building those social networks that are critically important after we've stopped work and have that network network at work. So exercise provides that opportunity as well. And it's critically important to reduce that 11 years of deterioration, to increase our healthy lifespan so we actually enjoy life. I'm about to be a grandfather for the fourth time, and I love being with my grandchildren. My education background, as you mentioned, is primarily early childhood. I love being with children. I love watching them develop. But if I couldn't actually bend down and lift up my grandchildren, I'd be feeling pretty sorry for myself. So it's critically important from a selfish point of view as well. Look, you touched on all the major points there, Barry. I really appreciate that. And I really can't emphasise enough for those people listening that... Exercise is a golden bullet, really, in terms of a therapy or medication. If we had something that reduced the relative risk of cardiovascular disease by 30 to 40%, which is what exercise does, it alters your cholesterol profile, it lowers your blood pressure, it improves insulin resistance, lowers triglycerides. It gives you better quality of life. And I'm so pleased you touched on that mental health aspect as well, because we're well aware that exercise can be as effective as some of our first-line antidepressants, which just speaks volumes to the importance of getting out and doing that. And that quality of life equation is huge. Look, having touched on that... And that social connection, which you obviously alluded to, what's a day in the life of Barry Elvish look like? How do you balance, you know, your responsibilities at work? Plus, obviously, you must make time to... family you've alluded to and you must also make time for sport and some sort of exercise in your life as well. How does your average day look? You can do a weekday or a weekend, I don't mind. Let's just go back a step, Warrick. I mean, I've experienced, unfortunately, mental health issues all of my life. Some of it is, some of it's genetic, some of it's environmental. I realised at the age of about 11 or 12 that I had some issues with my mental well-being and luckily because i lived by the water at the time i discovered the ocean and i discovered surfing and i've spent all of my life since then involved in water sports surfing swimming sailing scuba diving all that sort of gear when i moved away from the water and i had i married and had a family i had to find another way of getting the exercise i needed for my mental well-being so i started running um and i've run marathons and half marathons and all that kind of gear as well and i still run i don't get in the water as much as i would like to because here where i live in sydney it's it's um not not close for me but i went to the gym last night i got on the treadmill and i ran seven k's just clearing my mind about the the work things i've been doing and it's interesting you know you talk about the importance of exercise um in terms of dealing with your mental health and look i've had times in my life where i've had to use medication where things have sort of got on top of me but generally speaking exercise has been my go-to uh and for me it's it's really kept me on that straight now it's given me the focus and so on so i make a point i do exercise every morning with my wife before i come to work just a 10 minute limbering up with the YouTube video we watch. And then I get to the gym four or five times a week. I spend every second time cardio, every second time strength resistance, strength training. And I try and look after myself in the best way I can because I want to make sure I maintain a healthy mental and physical state. I want to make sure I'm there for my grandchildren. I want to make sure I'm there for my wife and enjoying life when I do eventually retire. Yeah, wow. Look, that's a powerful sharing. Thanks, Barry. You obviously walk the walk through your own experience and see the benefit in that. I really hope that resonates with people who are listening, actually, and moves people to go and do something, to look after themselves and bring the best opportunity for the best quality of life for themselves and for the people they care for. Look, I try and keep these podcasts short and sweet. I think we could probably talk for hours, but what I'd like to do is wrap up. And really, as we do that, tell us about where you think the future directions of AusActive might be and how they might reach out to the community. Have you got plans beyond a million moves? Absolutely. Look, I think COVID was a real wake-up call for our sector for a whole lot of reasons, some good, some bad. You'd recall back in the COVID days when we were all experiencing lockdowns, unfortunately gyms, and when I use the word gyms, I mean any facility which has physical activity taking place inside, so it could be yoga, pilates, dance, whatever. Well, we were all shut down, and when it was justified to close us down... it was because we were actually associated and categorised with brothels, tattoo parlours and that sort of gear. And I think that really gave a huge wake-up call because when you consider that 8 million Australians over the age of 15 go to a gym at least once a year, it is the most popular form of physical activity or sport in Australia, bar none. That's not my data, that is government data. But when you take... part that alongside the fact that health officers were considering us alongside a brothel and a tattoo parlour there was a complete disconnect so that really for us gave us a very strong message we needed to demonstrate to the government policy makers health departments that the role we play in australia's preventive health is critically important and one of one of the things that truly uh frustrates me is that whenever government spends money on health It is addressing the supply issue. So what do we do to close the gap with no gap funding? What do we do to address mental health? What do we do to address primary health networks? Less than 1%, or around 1% of the health budget, same budget released 36 hours ago, less than 1% of that budget is spent on preventive health. The government's own papers. indicate very clearly that for every dollar spent in preventive health, there is a $14 return to the taxpayer in money saved. The government's own paper indicate it should be up to 5% by 2030, but we maintain this ridiculous unequal equation of spending 99% of our money on the supply side rather than the demand side. by reducing the demand on the health service by preventive health. Our sector has got a huge role to play there. So AusActive's primary function over the next three or four years is to get the government to acknowledge that and invest in preventive health through exercise, physical activity, a public health campaign. You and I are both old enough to remember Norm, the cartoon character, and life unit. 50 years ago, that was. Very successful public health campaign. The government needs to start that again. for a five-year period to indicate to people why they should be exercising. And we know they work. They sip, stop, slap, you know, the quit smoking, the AIDS campaign, the seatbelt campaign, they all work. The government needs to actually themselves start walking the talk. Look, I think you're sort of preaching to the choir here. You know I'm... deeply passionate about prevention my area of prevention is cardiovascular disease but speaks to exactly the same issues and it just blows my mind we spend like you say so much time on tow truck responses when people break down no one really puts the effort and focus into good maintenance and regular servicing And we don't run our lives that way. It's just extraordinary. And I think it probably speaks, unfortunately, volumes to our political system, which is cyclical and you need to put out fires rather than have the opportunity for longer term planning. So, yeah, I actually have to say I feel quite, you know. privilege to be involved with AusActive, at least in a small way around trying to support your implementation of this million moves more broadly. And we very much welcome that support and I would encourage your colleagues to also get involved and see what they can do to support us as well. Unfortunately, we do know that many GPs are reluctant for whatever reason to refer their patients to our facilities and I can understand some of those reasons, but at the end of the day... As you indicated yourself, there was some research coming out of the University of Adelaide or Finnish University, one of the ones in South Australia just recently, which shows that exercise is one and a half times more effective than drugs or counselling when dealing with anxiety and mild depression. And I know from personal experience, the impact of depression and anxiety is only going to increase in this world as we deal with the various things that are outside of our control, unfortunately. Yeah, completely agree. Look, Barry, it's been a pleasure sharing with you. I'm going to wrap it up there. For those who've forgotten, this is Barry Elvish from AusActive, CEO of the organisation presiding over really... the bulk of the wellness delivery in Australia, really looking to make some change in a positive way. Thank you again, Barry, for those listening. Thank you so much for your time. I really do appreciate you tuning in. If you've got any queries or questions, drop us a note at info at drWarrickbishop.online. Till next time, I hope you live as well as possible for as long as possible. Take care and bye for now. Hi. Ever wondered what your risk of heart attack is? You should. It's the single biggest killer in the Western world. We're talking one death less than every 30 minutes in Australia. One death less than every 60 seconds in the United States. Nine million deaths globally per annum. Well, how do you check your risk? Well, you can go to www.virtualheartcheck.com.au. You'll find out about your risk and what. can be done beyond that to be even more precise.
