News
City Talk - August 29, 2011
Physical Activity and Health
A recent article published in the New York Times made the dire prediction that by 2030, more than 50% of the United States population will be classified as obese. Concurrent with this alarming projection was the forecast that explosive increases in cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension and other medical conditions would place an increase of upwards of $66 billion in increasing medical costs. With such potential outcomes, simply increasing our medical interventions after the fact is not an intelligent approach to cost containment. Rather, we must move immediately towards prevention and reversing the lifestyle choices that are driving us towards these awful projections.
Leading fitness organizations are now actively promoting exercise as a prescription for preventing disease and improving health. The American College of Sports Medicine has a program called Exercise is Medicine to promote exercise prescriptions: http://exerciseismedicine.org/. This program calls on physicians and fitness professionals to work together in promoting exercise to both prevent disease and as a powerful tool in managing medical conditions. Similarly, the American Academy of Health, Fitness and Rehabilitation Professionals (AAHFRP) provides training for fitness professionals to work with the medical community in providing properly designed exercise programs for post-rehabilitation clients and for supporting the management of long-term medical conditions. Nearly all of the Monterey Sports Center training staff have been certified by Dr. Michael Jones, President of AAHFRP, as Medical Exercise Specialists in addition to their other certifications and degrees.
Partnering with ACSM, the American Medical Association has recognized the importance of physical activity as a key component to staying healthy. Amongst its initiatives is to help physicians to become effective at consistently counseling and referring patients in regard to their physical activity needs. "If we had a pill that contained all the benefits of exercise, it would be the most widely prescribed drug in the world," said AMA President, Rondal M. Davis, MD in a recent interview with the New England Journal of Medicine. "1 hour of exercise equals 1.95 added hour of life."
The research conducted by ACSM and the AMA indicates the 65% of patients would be more likely to exercise if advised by their doctor and given additional resources. Twenty-five percent of patients noted that their doctor would be the first person they turn to for advice on exercise. Some four out of ten physicians in the AMA study noted that they talk to their patients about the importance of exercise, but they don’t always offer suggestions as to how to be active.
In response, the AMA offers two toolkits: 1) Healthier Life Steps program that helps clinicians to offer routine lifestyle change, including readiness assessment and interventions for patients; and 2) Healthier Life Steps – A Physician’s Guide to Personal Health that supports physician’s personal efforts to live healthier lives and serve as role models to their patients.
The American Academy of Family Physicians offers the Americans in Motion – Healthy Interventions. This initiative is designed to improve the health of all Americans through a multi-faceted fitness program that addresses physical activity, nutrition and emotional well-being in the individual, family, and community. Leaders in lifestyle medicine such as the American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM) and the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM), acknowledge these efforts but believe that more can be done to assist healthcare providers to offer lifestyle medicine services and address the barriers to prescribing these services.
The Monterey Sports Center recently finalized a contract to bring PRIMA HEART to the Monterey Sports Center. PRIMA HEART offers Preventive cardiology and early screening along with intervention programs and dietary counseling that work well in the early detection of cardiovascular and metabolic problems. Working with PRIMA HEART, the Sports Center staff of Physical Therapists and personal trainers hope to develop and provide ongoing programs for individuals and families that will focus on active lifestyles and the prevention of disease.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the popular CNN medical correspondent, providing a revealing and informative look at the role early detection and intelligent lifestyle choices play in preventing heart attacks in a recent powerful video hosted on CNN.com:
We encourage all of our City employees and members of our community to join the Monterey Sports Center in encouraging active healthy lifestyles and we hope you take the time to visit the PRIMA HEART website and explore all of the outstanding programs and services they will be bringing to the Monterey Sports Center.