SILVER SPRING, MD – September 8, 2015 – Many Canadians who visit the doctor these days with health and medical issues are going home with a unique prescription:  written instructions to exercise. “Doctors are showing that they take this seriously,” says Martin Juneau, director of prevention at the Montreal Heart Institute.  “It’s not just advice. This way, it’s a medical prescription.”

Many leaders in the USA have been spreading the message about physical activity.

“Physical activity is the closest thing we have to a wonder drug,” acknowledges Dr. Thomas Frieden, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.  “Being active is one of the most important things people of all ages, sizes, and shapes can do to improve their health.  There is no single medicine that comes close to what physical activity can do.”

Dr. Frieden is not alone on this issue as the American College of Sports Medicine (Indianapolis, IN) believes that “exercise is medicine.”

“As a family physician, I have seen first-hand that exercise is a powerful medication,” says Dr. Robert Sallis, medical doctor/co-director of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center (Fontana, CA).

“There is nothing you can do for your health that is more powerful than maintaining an active lifestyle. And for children, the foundation of an activity filled lifestyle starts with daily physical education in our schools,” says Dr. Tim Church, Professor, Pennington Biomedical, Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, LA).

PHIT America feels great about these comments, but wants the USA to be more aggressive.

“I think some doctors in the USA ‘get it.’  However, this Canadian effort using an actual prescription is taking this dialogue to a whole new level.  We hope doctors in the U.S. quickly follow the lead from our friends to the north,” notes Baugh.

Founded in January 2013, PHIT America is a non-profit campaign focused on overcoming the severe ramifications of the ‘Inactivity Pandemic’ through three strategic approaches – education, supporting school-based activity programs, and advocating – which will get Americans, especially our youth, more active, fit and healthy.

http://www.phitamerica.org/News_Archive/Canada_Doctors.htm