Researchers at Western University are trying to combine love for hockey with health improvement.

Dr. Robert Petrella is a physician and researcher.

He is with Hockey Fans in Training.

He says they’ve undertaken a research project with male fans.

Essentially, male fans of teams between 35-65 were asked to take part in a study to become more active and healthier.

He says the results to date have been encouraging.

“They stuck with the program to the point where they lost weight- about 10 pounds on average and that’s as good as some of the commercial programs that are out there,” he says.

Dr. Petrella says there’s a bonus too.

“The beauty of this is that once they’ve left our program and we had them back after a year they kept the weight off and kept the blood pressure down. Not only did they get the short term benefit but past that too,” Dr. Petrella says.

Petrella says stage one was with two OHL teams, Sarnia and London, and now they’re trying to expand to include all OHL teams and they have been in contact with the North Bay Battalion.

Officials with the team say they’ve encouraged their season ticket holders to register if they’re interested in getting involved in a similar program in North Bay.

They are spreading the word on their twitter and facebook accounts.

Filed under: Dr. Robert Petrella, Hockey Fans In Training, North Bay Battalion