Making Exercise a Medical Issue

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Doctors are where the sick go to get medicine; gyms are where the healthy go to get exercise. At least that's how it used to work. Doctors and insurance companies are leading a growing movement to ask about exercise during medical appointments and prescribe exercise in place of medicine, where appropriate.

Nonprofit health insurer Kaiser Permanente began asking its member physicians to record exercise information in Southern California in 2008 and has since expanded to include other doctors in its network, and other insurance networks across the country are adopting similar programs. Such programs are one of the goals of Exercise Is Medicine™, an initiative launched by the American College of Sports Medicine in partnership with the American Medical Association in 2007 with the overall aim of making exercise a standard part of medical care. "There is no better indicator of a person's health and longevity than the minutes per week of activity a patient engages in," says Robert E. Sallis, chairman of EIM and a doctor in the Kaiser network. "When incorporated in a healthcare setting, the exercise vital sign can be an important tool for prevention and management of disease."

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