By Kirsten Whittaker
If doctors want to get inactive adults up and moving a formal, prescribing exercise might just do the trick. These prescriptions work according to the unique new research out of Spain.
Mainstream medicine has mostly ignored the idea of writing prescriptions for exercise, favoring instead surgical procedures or pharmaceutical approaches to keep patients healthy.
The researchers trained 56 Spanish family doctors on how to write custom exercise prescriptions for their inactive patients.
These doctors gave more than 2,200 adults exercise prescriptions that were specific to each patient. As a control for the study, the physician’s didn’t give exercise prescriptions to 2,070 other inactive adults.
Six months later, the patients who’d been given the prescriptions for exercise reported they’d been more physically active than those who hadn’t gotten the unique type of prescription.
These effects are considered clinically relevant.
Clearly vague advice to “get more active” doesn’t do the trick; but rather a personalized exercise routine, written in prescription form, just for them can have an impact and get patients up and moving.
Just as doctors do with prescriptions for medication in pill form, prescriptions for exercise need to have details to be worthwhile.
Why does exercise help? How do I get started? Is being active safe for me? Details about the type of exercise, how often it should be done, and goals for the patient are all important parts of any prescription.
By doing this, the recommendation stands as a physical reminder of the advice, and has an added something extra because your doctor took the time to write it down.
Past research has shown clearly that those who stay active and fit live longer and healthier lives than those who are more sedentary, and this holds true not matter how old you are, no matter what race you belong to, whether you’re male or female or no matter what the environment around you is like.
Of the three things that your doctor will tell you have the most impact on your health and longevity – genetics, environment and how we behave – behaviors are the things most under our own control.
And while this research is out of Spain, the results may well take hold in the United States.
Pamela Peeke, MD, MPH, FACP, who is the spokeswoman for the American College of Sports Medicine’s Exercise is Medicine campaign says of the prescriptions for exercise in the U.S. “It’s just in its embryonic phase.” In fact, Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles, California is testing a prescription for exercise program right now.
Part of why prescribing exercise is rare in the U.S. may be because many doctors don’t have any training in physical activity or nutrition, not to mention how to set up exercise programs.
In the research training was provided for the physicians, and that would likely help U.S. doctors as well.
Next just head on over to the Daily Health Bulletin for more information on why you could expect doctors to be prescribing exercise in the future, plus get 5 free fantastic health reports.
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