Student led program aims to use physical activity as every day medicine
In an attempt to motivate people to get serious about their physical health, an international campus project has taken hold at the University of Guelph. Spearheaded by graduate students Alison Ludzki and Lydia Frost, teaming with Guelph’s Human Health and Science’s Department Chair Dr. Lawrence Spreit, the Exercise is Medicine initiative aims to promote the dramatic positive impact that an active lifestyle can have for both mental and physical health.
The project is attempting to not only promote physical health and activity on campus, but also to connect with actual medical practitioners in order to bring them into the fold. To this end, Ludzki, Frost, and a number of other students, mostly from the human kinetics and biomedical sciences, have come together and divided their efforts into three primary groups: on-campus programming, off-campus programming, and physician outreach.
The first two groups, as their names imply, focus on organizing events both on and off campus in order to further their cause. An upcoming seminar, to be held in the science complex the evening of March 27, aims to raise awareness amongst U of G’s own students, while outreach sessions with high schools and the larger Guelph population hope to disseminate the idea further into the community.
The group hopes that through their hard work, physical exercise will become a viable alternative for medical doctors to prescribe to patients in order to improve their health.
“The idea,” said Spreit, “is that this will allow [people] to fight off or prevent disease before actually becoming ill.”
To this end, the group posits that reaching out to existing medical practitioners, as well as influencing those Guelph students who will go on to work in the medical field, is equally important.
“The most obvious [advantages to an active lifestyle],” Spreit said, “are lowered resting heart rate, blood pressure, better lipid profiles (a broad medical screening of the blood to determine abnormalities in lipids, like cholesterol), weight loss, and increased resting metabolic rate and energy.”
Furthermore, taking charge of one’s health can lead to mental health benefits, as people take control of and improve their health and in doing so, see themselves in a better light. This alone could prove extremely important in helping students deal with the stresses of school and social life.
“Exercise has been shown to reduce symptoms of depression,” said Ludzki, one of the project leaders. “Naturally, improved physical and mental health would have immense spillover effects in the school and personal lives of students.”
At its heart, the main focus of Exercise is Medicine is to extend the notion to the clinical establishment, and those involved are extremely optimistic.
“Preventative health care is a hot topic now as its importance has become clear in the medical field and to the public,” Ludzki explained, “Exercise is a potent tool to prevent the onset of diseases. Additionally, the role of Exercise is Medicine in connecting researchers with health care providers will facilitate its use more than ever with clinical populations and with older adults by providing further evidence of the safety and practicality of various exercise modalities.”
Dr. Spreit further emphasized the importance of preventative medicine by saying that it will not only cut back on the so-called diseases of affluence (obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, etc.), but that it could also ease pressure on the alarming growth in health care costs, both in Canada and around the world.
Not only does this project reflect the growing realization that being physically active and fit can dramatically impact the way in which an individual is able to cope with the stresses of every day life, but it also provides another shining example of the initiative, hard work, and heart of Guelph’s students as they dedicate their time to bettering the community.
“I hope,” offered Ludzki, “[that Exercise is Medicine] will lead to improved quality of life among those who make lifestyle changes to include more physical activity.”
The benefits of a healthy, active lifestyle are innumerable, and the members of the ‘Exercise is Medicine’ project are working hard to spread the word.
Upcoming events on campus include the Science Olympics and the EIMC@Guelph Seminar on Mar. 27, where three speakers will further discuss the health benefits espoused by the project.