INSPO Fitness Journal November 2017

EXERCISE
IS MEDICINE
There is a saying that if exercise was a pill it would be
the most highly prescribed medication in the world.
BY ALISON STOREY
The benefits of positive lifestyle modification
(LM) have been established by
decades of evidence and no one could
argue that regular exercise forms part of a
healthy life. However it is becoming increasingly
evident that exercise also forms a huge
part of preventative medicine.
Numerous studies point to a lower incidence
of heart disease, cancer and dementia
in the healthiest populations of the world –
ones that are constantly active and follow a
Mediterranean or plant based way of eating. It
has long been known that the effects of regular
exercise far outweigh the efficacy of Prozac
on managing depression. Manipulation of
the major food groups is sometimes used by
oncologists to ‘starve’ cancer cells, and supplementing
Omega 3 into the diet of maximum
security prisoners dramatically decreases
incidence of inmate aggression (which begs
the question that if they had better nutrition
would they even be there in the first place?).
As evidence of the need for preventative
medicine, there an undeniable escalation of
microbial resistance (meaning antibiotics will
no longer work on the simplest of ailments)
and a statistic that predicts 80 percent of
Kiwis will be morbidly obese by 2060. The
effects of climate change, resource rivalry,
the refugee crisis and unchecked population
growth (in certain areas), is further fostering
the development of disease, including triggering
some long dormant diseases like polio.
Issues like these are increasingly forcing
the health and medical professions to focus
on how to prevent illness rather than just
continuing to treat symptoms as post-disease
treatment alone is failing to stem the flow.
A comprehensive employer sponsored
lifestyle program targeting diet, exercise, behaviour
modification, and stress management
was initiated with twelve employees between
2006 and 2010 at a rural university in Ohio in
the United States. The intervention program
was effective in reducing cardiovascular
disease risk factors after just one year of treatment
(which says something about investing
in keeping employees well rather than paying
out loads of sick pay).
Closer to home, the Green Prescription
program attempts to use the power of a
doctor’s advice to initiate lifestyle changes. To
make regular exercise part of the ‘medication’,
patients are paired with exercise educators via
Sport Waikato. And in a throw-back to primary
school drama lessons, a 2016 program
helped children manage stress by imitating
interesting plants and animals, such as sunflowers,
pine trees, sleeping lions and deer.
Getting up and walking is one of the first
rehabilitative exercises after heart surgery,
training with weights has been proven to
increase bone density in many cases of osteoporosis,
a diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes can
be overturned through regular exercise and a
reduction of body fat, and lung damage from
smoking can be reversed through exercise
interventions.
In the prevention of disease, new findings
in 2017 studies showed that engaging in
even minimal amounts of exercise can be
protective against breast cancer. The effect
of exercise on hypertension (high blood
pressure) has been well researched and the
lowering/stabilising of blood pressure is one
of the first positive effects of an appropriate
exercise program.
26 INSPO – FITNESS JOURNAL NOVEMBER 2017