Prescription for exercise

DOCTORS don’t prescribe enough exercise to patients despite all the evidence showing its benefits in fighting illness, say experts including the chief doctor of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

A doctor’s attitude towards physical activity can also predict their willingness to prescribe exercise for their patients, researchers say in a scholarly opinion piece in the Medical Journal of Australia.

They said just as doctors asked patients about smoking and drinking, they should ask about how much they exercise.

Games chief medical officer Anita Green urged doctors to remember the “considerable evidence” that shows exercise can improve mental health and combat diabetes, the onset of dementia, cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal conditions and some cancers. “For some chronic conditions, specific exercise is at least as effective as drug therapy,” Dr Green wrote.