Most Iowans know if you eat right and exercise, it's good for your health, but researchers at the University of Iowa want to take that common knowledge to the next level.
Lucas Carr, a professor in the UI's Department of Health and Human Physiology, says they're studying the feasibility of testing all patients' physical activity levels during every clinical care visit.
"We found that it's a really simple process, only a couple of questions that we ask, and it takes less than 30 seconds to do it," Carr says. "Secondly, we wanted to demonstrate the value of this information. Patients who were active had a reduced risk of up to 19 different diseases, which are all diseases that we know are related to physical activity."
The UI study links regular physical activity to a significantly reduced risk of multiple chronic diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and diabetes.
"People should take their physical activity seriously, and hopefully healthcare organizations are taking the time to ask patients about their activity," Carr says, "and if patients are in need of some help, that they're helping facilitate connecting them to resources."
He says one's physical activity level should be gauged during visits to the doctor's office like all other vital signs.
"They're always going to measure your heart rate, they're always going to measure your blood pressure and your temperature," Carr says. "Physical activity sometimes gets asked, but it's not consistent across most hospital systems, and so that's what we want to do, is make sure that it is consistently asked of every patient at every visit."
Most of us are used to being given a prescription as a remedy for whatever ails us, and Carr suggests if the patient isn't being physically active, that they be written an "exercise prescription."
"There are free resources available on the American College of Sports Medicine's website," Carr says. "Basically all it is is a single document that a provider can fill out that helps a patient identify a few basic exercise goals, including how many days per week would they want to exercise, for how many minutes and at what intensity."
Most of the country's hospitals do not quiz patients about their physical activity, and Carr says no hospital system in the Midwest is doing so, either.
"People undersell the value of physical activity. We want to make sure that people fully grasp how important it is to maintain an active lifestyle," Carr says. "Our bodies were designed to move, and if healthcare providers can be a part of that conversation, that's always a good thing."