Sports is Medicine — An open letter to Mayor Michael Rama, VM Edgardo Labella and Coun. Mary Ann delos Santos

Dear Gentlemen and Madame:

Congratulations on winning your constituents’ hearts and minds in the last elections! But since we only have the next three years to make real change until the next elections, may I suggest that we adopt programs that impact the constituents beyond your three-year term.

We all know that the City of Cebu has an exemplary grassroots sports program that introduces sports to school children and young adults, which in turn enables the city to scout fresh talents in the various sports field. We however do not have a sports program that aims to reduce the incidence of lifestyle diseases among Cebu City’s constituents.

It is often said that prevention is always better than cure. You only have to take a look at our filled-to-capacity public hospitals to see that we do not have enough logistics to care for the city’s sick constituents. But we can reduce the need to allocate money for curing ailments by preventing them in the first place through sports and exercise.

Yes, SPORTS and EXERCISE. Being running enthusiasts and health buffs yourselves, you very well know that sports is not exclusively for the young and it shouldn’t be.

There is a global initiative by the American College of Sports Medicine called Exercise is Medicine. As explained by Dr. Benedict Tan, four-time Asian Games and SEA Games gold medalist (sailing), sub-three marathoner and head of the Changi Sports Medicine Center, the main objective of the Exercise is Medicine program is to train health care and fitness professionals to confidently prescribe exercise to patients.

The overall goals of Exercise is Medicine is firstly, to raise awareness amongst doctors and other health care professionals to monitor the exercise levels of their patients; secondly, to train doctors and allied health professionals to confidently prescribe exercise to their patients; thirdly, to train fitness professionals to carry out the exercise prescription and supervise the patients in those exercise programs; and finally, to raise the awareness amongst the general public that if they need an exercise prescription, be it for general health reasons or their medical problems, they can go to a doctor or fitness professional to get an exercise prescription.

As for the components of the exercise prescription, the program use a FITT progression model. “F” is for the frequency of exercise, whether it’s exercising three days a week or five days a week. “I” is the intensity of the exercise, that is the heart rate or the exertion level of the exercise. “T” is for the type of exercise (cardiovascular, strength, flexibility). “T” stands for the time or duration of the exercise per session. Finally the progression or how fast the patient steps up the exercise. The program is customized per patient, but there are three must haves — cardiovascular, flexibility and resistance training.

For cardiovascular training – patients try to accumulate 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity or 75 minutes of high intensity physical activity per week, while flexibility training must be done daily. Resistance training is done 2X a week. There’s a fourth component which is recommended for people over 50 years of age, which is balance training mainly as a fall prevention strategy.

Sports and exercise can greatly benefit your most beloved constituents – the senior citizens as ageing is accompanied with a decline in functional capacity. Regular exercise helps to arrest or reverse that decline. Also, in ageing individuals there is an increased risk in acquiring chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, osteoporosis, among others. Regular exercise reduces the risk of these diseases and it is an important intervention in the management of such diseases. Finally, we know that exercise can prolong a person’s lifespan and improve the quality of life in ones remaining years.

Singapore is our nearest ASEAN neighbor which has implemented this program with the help of corporate sponsors. It is my humble opinion that Cebu, with its forward looking leaders, can successfully adopt this program.

Yours truly,

Marathonfoodie