By Farren Briggs PhD, ScM
Earlier this week I was moderating a group discussion among first
year medical students on a hypothetical medical case where a
physician prescribed his diabetic patient to lose fifty pounds and
exercise regularly in order to manage their chronic condition. The
students initially thought nothing of this statement, but as we
revisited the prescription, they realized the prescription was nonspecific
without an actionable plan to encourage adherence and
compliance of the diabetic patient to the treatment.
The physician did not give any practical
advice on nutrition, healthier food substitutes, best practices for weight loss, or where to
begin with exercise – thus, the hypothetical patient would have been left uninformed and
unfortunately be stuck with the same old habits.
The students and I spoke about various
approaches to improving the prescription, for example motivational interviewing by the
physician as a means of identifying the patient’s values and desires, and using that
information to facilitate and encourage personal behavior change. I am the first to admit I
have always been biased to the positive possibilities of exercise on physical and mental
health, but for several years I saw exercise as a luxury, competing with the limited time I
had to spend on more important things. Fortunately, I had an academic coach use motivational interviewing to help me realize exercising was a cornerstone of my daily life,
and by exercising, I was more productive and effective when I applied myself to other
activities. This month there were several publications, not on motivational interviewing, but
on physical activity – suggesting exercise improves various outcomes in MS.
Continue to read this article from The Accelerated Cure Project
