Recently, an article appeared on the NPR website saying that some scientists are now considering inactivity to be a medical condition (up there with heart disease and diabetes) and believe that physicans need to take on some of the responsibility.
Why bring this up on Inflammablog? Well...many inflammatory conditions are closely related: such as obesity, type II diabetes, stroke, heart disease...
So, do you think doctors need to take a larger stance against inactivity? Whose responsibility is it to get out there and move?
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/08/15/158831652/should-lack-of-exercise-be-considered-a-medical-condition?sc=17&f=1001
How do you prescribe activity? I guess actually you can, and maybe if a doctor says you need to exercise in a gym with a certain routine X times a week, maybe gym membership would become chargeable to your health insurance? Or at least a consultation with an exercise physiologist?
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know: I heard someone say that you needed to do 5 30-minute exercise sessions a week. Is one 150-minute session the same? I can ride my bike for 2.5 hours on the weekend, but don't have time during the week...
Typically, no. Edward R. Laskowski at the Mayo Clinic has pointed out that such manipulations in frequency and time length do not have a clear advantage whether it is greater frequency or greater length in the gym. I think the key part is that you at least do engage in exercise to induce that acute stress.
DeleteExercise is a particularly strange phenomenon that is clearly a form of acute stress that is actually GOOD for you.
Source: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/aerobic-exercise/AN01947
in these times inactivity is not a new problem, it's something that most of the people here are dealing with it,so doctors could play a rule resolving the issue by introducing people to the new ways of activity and they could also make their patients aware of some related issues and disease,but in my opinion such a problem needs to be resolve in early ages before it become more and more of an issue in adulthood.So media, school and other organizations....etc could help increasing people's understanding about inactivity.
ReplyDeleteOsteopathic physicians have been strongly involved in the promotion of preventive health, lifestyle modification, and stress management in their treatment regimens, as per the principles laid out by Andrew Thomas Still, founder of osteopathic medicine.
DeleteHowever, as the old adage goes, "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink." We can make every considerable effort to promote such lifestyle modifications. The question is: will they take it?
I agree that schools and media should increase peoples understanding of the consequences of inactivity and promote more ways to exercise in early ages, such as an obligated sport in school or something like that =]
DeleteWell, prevention is only as good as the knowledge and research we have. For instance, we know smoking is an unhealthy habit because of the extensive corporate and public research on the habit on their effects in cardiovascular, respiratory, and overall health.
DeleteHowever, I do concur that schools should be making considerable steps to promote exercise and health. A lot of schools have reduced the emphasis on physical education or extracurricular sports or provide waivers for parents to sign them up for community sports. However, I see a lot of high school students not doing anything in their physical education courses. With the emergence of even childhood diabetes, I think that school or community sports should be of consideration.
The idea that physicians should be bearing the burden of the patient’s inactive lifestyle and poor choices is laughable. Michael Joyner’s attempts to approach the issue of “inactivity” is to treat it as a disease-state is ridiculous, and would rather blame everything from medical research industrial complex to the physicians for the patient’s poor choices, lack of compliance, and resistance towards medical education, nutrition, and exercise. Osteopathic and allopathic physicians are taking a hard stance against the sedentary lifestyle, but it’s the patients who fail to take the responsibility to improve them and make those lifestyle changes.
ReplyDeleteHere’s my rebuttal on Michael Joyner’s “efforts” to address “inactivity”.
1. According to the article, he is accusing the “entire medical research industrial complex” for capitalizing on inactivity to the point of patient reimbursement for medications but not for gym memberships. Well, if people were able to capitalize on exercise, the entire medical research industrial complex would be working on that, also. Pills are always selling and an economically inelastic good. Treadmills? Not so much.
2. Citing traffic safety and decline in smoking rates isn’t really the same as the “inactivity” that Joyner is describing. Harsher drunk driving laws and smoking bans are designed to reduce social and community harm (such as traffic accidents in drunk driving laws, and air pollution in smoking bans). The only harm that inactivity does is mainly personal in nature, and can’t be equalized to the successes of traffic safety and public health.
3. Joyner also suggests that resolution of his “problem” is to get doctors to push for exercise and make cities or towns make bike lanes or parks to provide alternatives to the gym. Well, they’re already built, but such modes of transportation may not be feasible in rural or even small town communities. And with suburban sprawl, it is much more difficult to utilize bicycles or walk to commercial areas.
Patients should be a little more responsible with their actions, and should bear their cross when their poor life choices incur the metabolic disorders that are attributed to such life factors. I am tired of physicians being blamed for patients losing their eyesight, limbs, and somatic function when the patients are the ones making the poor choices. This society is somehow a “blame” society, where the heart-clogged, pill-popping tub of lard is somehow able to make a 100-meter dash when the ice cream truck is pulling out but not be able to walk twenty inches even if it will save his life.
The greatest obstacle the physician has is patient compliance. Just because the physician gives the patient instructions does not mean the patient will follow it. Even with a strong physician-patient relationship, the patient needs self-discipline, patience, and perseverance to improve their health, not be on the backs of physicians that already tell the patient the same thing repeatedly. Michael Joyner should stop labeling laziness as a disease-state until he gives his clients a big double dose of responsibility and accountability.
I think it may be the physician responsibility to let the patient know that they need to exercise, but it is the patients responsibility to accomplished, and not necessary in a gym, there is many ways to exercise without having to pay anything, they can go for a walk of just exercise in home, but the thing is that many if not most of the patients prefer to take medications. For example for diabetes it is posible to reduce glucose levels by exercising but patients instead prefer to take insulin, which helps them momentarily, but i believe they are making their situation worse day by day =]
ReplyDeleteI thought a lot about what JJ said. Doctors should be able to prescribe activity, I mean, why not? If they advocate for healthy lifestyles then they should definitely be able to tell their patients to go for a walk once a day.
ReplyDeleteThe subject of inactivity really frustrates me because it is something that a lot of people can change, but choose not to. Like Alex said, you can lead an inactive person to the gym, but it is up to them to decide whether or not to exercise. This leads me to believe that children should be engage in physical education in schools and activities during recess should be aimed at getting children up and about. For younger kids, good nutrition should be the focus of "snack time," and teachers should aim to focus on teaching healthy eating for them to engage in at home. The kids will develop good habits in being active everyday and hopefully, their good nutritional habits will follow them through for their life.
For me, it seems like a no brainer to go to the gym and to eat healthy if that means being able to prevent heart disease or diabetes. In order to make other people think it's a no brainer, doctors, schools, and people themselves should take responsibility for teaching and learning about being active and healthy.
Ultimately daily exercise, combined with a healthy life style can improve a vast array of diseases, as well as improve one’s quality of life. However, as stated before patient compliance is a major factor in patient recovery and progress. I have witnessed a patient diagnosed with peripheral artery disease due to poor life style habits and smoking that refused to quit smoking with knowledge that the continuation of her current life style would result with the amputation of her leg. This patient continued to smoke even up until the day of her amputation surgery. This one example shows the underlying issue of patient compliance. Some people are very resistant to change their habits or life style. Even with all the physician and medical support for healthier life style, it is ultimately the patient’s responsibility to be accountable for their own health.
ReplyDeleteIt's the patients who are accountable for their health condition, the way they want to live their life and the changes they want to make in their life.
ReplyDeleteDoctor's/Prescriber's are only the ones who can guide you, show you which path to walk, but if you don't take these things into account and start acting on it then there's no one to blame to but only their lazy habits and themselves.
Like Jesus said above, they rather find a shortcut and easy way like taking medications and insulins carrying the disease along than working out/exercising and getting rid of it.
Living in a society that preaches efficiency it is easy to see why deconditioning is increasing in society. It is the question of why do it when we have "X" that will do it for you? The society you live in may emphasize some genetic predisposition you have for certain illnesses. So what if you are genetically pre-disposed to laziness? To say we know that laziness is not related to genetics would be a lie. In previous generations we were forced to be more active because we would not be able to sustain daily life. Now we are able to sustain daily life by going through a fast food window and everything else that money can buy.
ReplyDeleteIn everything we do there is personal responsibility in taking care of ourselves and using our mind to consciously think about our actions and how they will affect our health. I agree with many of the other repliers that a lot of the responsibility falls on the patient. Financially speaking isn’t probably cheaper for an insurance company to pay a monthly membership fee (preventative medicine) then for drugs X, Y, and Z? We know that for majority of illnesses if we were able to prevent them, the prevention is a fraction of the price for treating the disease.
Just like prescriptions there will always be a disconnect in the medical professionals telling the patient what they need to do to get better and the patient actually doing it. That is where the solution is found. Of course people know that exercise is good for them and will make them healthier but as many of us know those first couple days at the gym after an extended time away are less than enjoyable. People are very oriented to only do what they like and what feels good to them. How is pushing them to be healthy and going through the rigors of exercise going to translate when you say “It will hurt now but eventually it will get better” to people that don’t understand discomfort?