Preventive health is sometimes an underexposed aspect of the healthcare system. Any program or intervention that can improve your current physical and emotional health will — in the long run — decrease the possibility of incurring an injury or illness. Many aspects of today’s society are detrimental to our physical health. We live in communities where travel occurs by automobile, rather than on foot or by bicycle. We spend increasing hours at sedentary jobs — operating computers or automated equipment. Our food is increasingly processed and preserved. Overall, this leaves Canadian residents in poorer physical health. Indicators of this include an increasing prevalence of obesity among Canadians — approximately 60 per cent of our population in the year 2008. As well, our children are demonstrating shocking trends toward increasing levels of obesity and time spent at television and computer screens, rather than participating in healthy levels of physical activity. As a result, diseases of lifestyle such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and hypertension are also on the increase.
However, the solutions to these problems are within our grasp. Individuals who hope to improve their level of physical health can make very large improvements with very small changes to their lifestyle. For example, research suggests that for overweight individuals, a decrease as small as 5–10 per cent of body mass can significantly improve health in terms of blood pressure, blood glucose, levels of pain and cardiac function. Increased physical activity levels in conjunction with proper nutrition are the recurring themes in management of these “lifestyle-related” ailments. Better still, prevent such illnesses by incorporating a healthy level of physical activity into your lifestyle, before the problem occurs.
Stonetown Physiotherapy & Sports Injuries Clinic offers several preventive health programs to help you get started:
- Fitness testing and exercise program design
- Cardiovascular exercise programs
- Weight/diabetes management programs
- Sport specific conditioning
- Pre-operative rehabilitation for knee replacement surgery
- Pre-operative rehabilitation for hip replacement surgery