By Prof. Hercules Callanta | MSPE
The incidence of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) worldwide, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, respiratory diseases and diabetes continues to rise and their death toll (63 percent of all annual deaths, killing more than 36 million a year) has reached the Philippine shores, causing 50.8 percent of total deaths. Notably, the diseases of the heart and the vascular system caused 30.8 percent of the total deaths. If nothing is done, this will increase further to 73 percent total deaths and the bureden of the disease will reach 60 percent by 2020.
The phenomenon of the NCDs has been closely linked by numerous researches to poor lifestyle, poor eating habits and physical inactivity, which are closely associated as well to overweightness and obesity. These links have been widely studied and proven by researches in reputable institutions, such as The Harvard School of Public Health, the United States’ Center for Disease Control, as well as the American College of Sports Medicine. Among them, ACSM chose to actively pursue a solution, bringing to birth its program and advocacy, Exercise Is Medicine.
Exercise Is Medicine Global, and its local chapter, Exercise Is Medicine-Philippines (EIMP) focus on encouraging physicians and other health-care providers to include exercise and physical activity when designing treatment plans for patients of NCDs. It is committed to regarding exercise and physical activity as integral in the prevention and treatment of diseases and should be regularly assessed as part of medical care. By recognizing that the treatment process should involve diagnosis, exercise prescription, exercise program implementation and continuous monitoring, it seeks to bring about a robust and dynamic collaboration between the primary care physician and the fitness professionals. This necessitates both parties having specific and complementary competencies in implementing an exercise and physical activity program to patients. EIMP assures this through certification seminars for both the primary care physicians and fitness professionals.
EIMP has been in existence since 2013, with Philippine Association for the Study of Overweight and Obesity (PASOO) as EIM licensee. Since then, over 300 primary care physicians and around 40 fitness professionals have been certified. Presently, the referral system is being fine-tuned, with the establishment of geographical linkages. Aiming to put up at least three certifications per year, the next certification seminar will be in October. PASOO, with its own efforts to improve the NCD profile of the country by curbing obesity and overweightness, is holding its 24th Annual Convention on August 30, 2018, at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel, with the theme “Fat Facts, Fads and Fallacies.” With the joint efforts of PASOO and EIM, the “heaviness” of the scourge of NCDs in general, and obesity, overweightness and the sedentary lifestyle in particular, will soon “lighten,” pun intended.