Physical therapist John Duffy promotes a “wonder drug” — in his practice and on his Facebook blog — every day:
I push this FREE wonder drug here, and in the clinic, all the time. Always a treat hearing people talk about their normalized cholesterol or blood sugar levels, weight loss, more stamina, improved sleep, improved energy, and many more other health benefits. Please read this link to find out how to get this FREE wonder drug yourself and start reaping the benefits.
Jordan D. Metzl, M.D. writes in Slate.com:
Exercise has benefits for every body system; it is effective both as a treatment and for prevention of disease. It can improve memory and concentration, lessen sleep disorders, aid heart disease by lowering cholesterol and reducing blood pressure, help sexual problems such as erectile dysfunction, and raise low libido. Exercise does it all. Even with cancer, particularly colon and recurrent breast cancer, the data show clearly that exercise is a deterrent. Newer studies on a glycoprotein called Interleukin 6 suggests that general body inflammation, a factor in almost every chronic disease, is reduced by regular exercise.
Simply put, Dr. Metzl is promoting economic sanity (in an otherwise insane health care system) as much as disease prevention:
The United States currently spends more than $2.7 trillion, roughly 17 percent of GDP, on a health care system that is financially incentivized to treat disease. The more tests that are run on patients, the more medicines that are dispensed, the more procedures that are performed, the greater the financial burden for us all. Despite far outspending any country in health care, the United States is currently ranked 28th in life expectancy. Our current system does very little to encourage preventive health care. We are mortgaging our country’s financial future to pay for increasingly expensive treatments for the same diseases we could effectively delay or prevent.
Maybe one day insurance companies will honor a doctor’s prescription for a treadmill or a membership to a health club as readily as they honor scripts for insulin or Viagra. Until that day comes, we are on our own.
The American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes per week of exercise. Time to get moving.