The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) created the Exercise Is Medicine (EIM) initiative to provide and promote information for healthcare professionals and patients about the importance of exercise. Each year, the month of May is designated by the ACSM as “Exercise is Medicine Month” to recognize the importance of healthcare professionals prescribing exercise as treatment as exercise is essential for everyone, including healthy patients as well as those coping with illness. Performance Health is pleased to promote the importance of exercise for health and disease management, according to a Performance Health news release.
Phil Page, PhD, PT, ATC, CSCS, FACSM, global director of clinical education and research for Performance Health and committee member of the EIM initiative, states, “Exercise has been proven to be ‘medicine’ for several diseases. Research supports the effectiveness of exercise in the prevention of conditions such as cancer, arthritis, and diabetes.” As indicated on the Performance Health news release, exercise prescription remains low among healthcare providers and patients for barriers to exercise include lack of time and facilities and equipment.
As such, the First Step to Active Health program was developed in conjunction with the ACSM and designed by experts under the National Blueprint to Increase Physical Activity, which is a customizable activity program for inactive older adults.
Page explains, “The First Step to Active Health program is based on a scientific foundation for exercise intervention and provides tools to access and individualize activity programs and strategies to encourage patients to become more active. The program has been shown to increase physical activity and function in several populations including arthritis, obesity, and diabetes.”
For more information about Exercise is Medicine and to view online resources, visit http://exerciseismedicine.org.
[Source: Performance Health]
