Exercise as Medicine
This article in USA Today got me thinking. It talks about a military investigation into why commanders sent soldiers from Fort Wainwright, AK, back to Iraq after doctors recommended that they lay low and recuperate from existing wounds. It cites Army statistics that found 16 percent of soldiers are non-deployable this year, many of those because of health problems.
A companion piece to the article also stated that “between 2006 and 2008, bad backs, strained knees and other ailments increased from 1.4 million cases in the overall military to 1.9 million, according to Defense Department records.”
It makes me wonder whether better physical fitness training could have prevented some of the non-combat injuries.
Granted the obesity epidemic is making it harder for the military to find good soldiers in the first place, but you’d think the Army would want healthy soldiers on the battlefront rather than sending in people with major medical issues. The Army even said it would add wellness training to its fitness training last year to try and reduce suicide rates, which are soaring as the number of repeated deployments goes up for soldiers.
It feels like the government and military are slowly starting to figure out what the fitness industry has known for years – exercise really is the best medicine.
March 11th, 2010 at 6:42 pm
It’s what I’ve been telling my members and clients for years: “Movement IS Medicine”! When we move our bodies in the right way, for the right duration at the right intensity with consistency our bodies respond with improved function!
That’s why it is imperative that we continue at the grassroots to spread the word to everyone that “movement medicine” is different for everyone - a cancer patient who desires to maintain or improve their function should not expect to participate at the same level of volume or intensity as a healthy person who is seeking to drop that extra 15 lbs. Each exercise prescription would be designed with a different type and dose of “movement medicine”.
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