OnFitness Magazine - March/April 2022 - 46

SMART
TRAINING
Just last month we were at a prominent
medical university giving a talk on natural
medicine to the residents in the family
medicine unit. As it's our custom, we
asked for a show of hands of how many of
the physicians had any medical school
training in exercise. Not one hand went
up. We then asked if any of these doctors
received any education in nutrition while
in medical school. Out of fifty or so, one
doctor raised his hand. And the results are
the same every single time we visit a
medical school such as this one.
Your average physician knows next to
nothing about exercise, and even less
about prescribing it. While it may be
useful to be screened by a physician before
beginning exercise, the " Check with your
physician " statement has two big
problems: it makes physicians look like
exercise experts, which they are not. And
it gives the impression that exercise is
somehow inherently dangerous.
While we're at it, why don't we start
putting, " Check with your physician, "
before signing up for a bowling league or
golf lessons, walking across the street, or
swimming across a pool? Sounds pretty
ridiculous, doesn't it?
People can figure out to look both
ways when crossing a street. And if you're
worried about drowning in a pool, we
recommend finding a good lifeguard
because little purple pills can't cure water
in the lungs. And upon thinking about it,
you'll realize that bowling can cause wrist,
finger, and back injuries.
We know these scenarios sound
absurd, but doctors are about as useful for
exercise prescription as they would be for
giving you swimming lessons or teaching
you how to golf without hurting your back
or knee. The faster you learn that the
quicker you can get into shape, be
stronger and live a happy, more vital life
without drugs.
The same goes for nutrition. If you
have any doubts, just visit the local mall
and see how effective doctors have been
with their nutrition advice. You'll see
obese people everywhere. What doctors
are trained in is identifying a class of
symptoms as a particular condition,
prescribing drugs, and performing surgery.
And let's give credit where credit's due.
Many of their efforts save lives, restore
mobility or vision, reduce pain, enable sick
kids to run again or senior citizens to play
golf again, etc. But imagine what could be
accomplished if physicians had even a
fraction of their total education steeped in
diet and exercise training.
When we were deciding what medical
schools to attend, we were shocked to
realize that the curriculums of the average
American medical school had zero courses
in nutrition and zero courses in exercise.
Already being well-established in the
fitness world, we saw red flags with this.
Rather than choosing a more
conventional medical school, we chose one
of the few medical universities in the
country with a curriculum focused
completely on natural health, diet, and
exercise. But there is no need to seek out a
doctor who specializes in lifestyle
medicine, because just around the corner
at your local gym you'll find professionals
who know vastly more about nutrition and
exercise than almost any doctor. They are
called personal trainers.
-
We have objective data to support our
position. As preventive and alternative
medicine becomes more popular, and
chronic disease increasingly less
manageable, research has begun to focus
on the exercise and nutrition problem.
An issue of Public Health Reports went
straight to the source and asked the leaders
of today's medical schools how they felt
about the doctors they train. The
researchers wanted to know how these
directors and teachers at America's medical
schools felt about the exercise education
doctors received and those doctors' ability
to prescribe exercise programs.
This study looked at a hundred and
twenty-eight medical schools and had the
deans and directors complete the
seventeen-item Exercise and Physical
Competence Questionnaire. While fiftyeight
percent of the respondents believed
their students could adequately perform a
physical activity readiness screen, only ten
percent said that they thought their
students could design a meaningful
exercise prescription. Even less, six percent
said their school had a course in educating
doctors in the American College of Sports
Medicine guidelines for exercise testing
and prescription.
Another study in the journal Academic
Medicine showed only thirteen percent of
all medical schools provided any education
in exercise. The authors stated in their
conclusions, " Providing our future
physicians with the knowledge and skills
to ask about physical activity, assess past
and current activity patterns, and advise
patients regarding implementation or
maintenance of physical activity patterns
will be one of the most significant changes
we can make in medical education this
decade. "
It appears that the medical students
themselves are not that confident in their
ability to deliver lifestyle medicine either.
Two thousand, three hundred and sixteen
medical students were tracked through
their medical school experience in a study
published in the American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition. It found that newly
graduated doctors did not have a whole lot
of confidence in their level of training.
Only nineteen percent felt they had
adequate training in nutrition. And only
seventeen percent engaged in any kind of
Qualified personal
trainers should be
viewed as primary
healthcare providers
at the frontlines of
lifestyle medicine.
nutritional education when counseling
patients. This is despite the evidence of the
first Nutrition and Health Report by the
Surgeon General. In that report, the
Surgeon General detailed that eight out of
ten of the top disease killers in America
were directly related to nutrition. Years
have passed and it seems no great strides
have been made in supplying physicians
with the tools necessary to fight major
chronic diseases.
-
Doctors themselves are not models of
physical fitness. It seems this trend starts
in medical school. Not only does the
medical school curriculum do an abysmal
job of educating students in preventive
medicine such as diet and exercise, but the
curriculum itself is extremely unhealthy
for students.
A study in Military Medicine followed
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OnFitness Magazine - March/April 2022

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