The Exercise Pill: choose.physio

On Tuesday night the Australian television audience was exposed to the choose.physio website domain that is being used by the Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA) for their promotional campaign.

Dr Christian Barton, physiotherapist, was a speaker on the SBS Insight program titled "The Exercise Pill: How we can use exercise to combat chronic health conditions". Chris wore his APA shirt with the choose.physio dual call-to-action and website domain embroidered on his chest. If you look really closely in the screenshot image you just may see it. And apologies to Chris for screenshotting him just as his eyes were closed.

The program promoted the strong evidence of the value of exercise in chronic health conditions and illuminated it with compelling patient stories. Chris advocated strongly for the physiotherapy profession through his explanation of the need for tailoring exercise specific to the needs of the patient and providing concurrent pain education. In Chris' words, "Pain does not necessarily mean tissue damange".

Chris also identified that the value of exercise for chronic health conditions has been reported in the scientific literature since 2002 and yet some sixteen years later only 3% of patients are referred for exercise to physiotherapists by General Practitioners.

The lack of knowledge about prescription by medical doctors was repeated in the program. One of the strongest advocates for exercise was BBC presenter Dr Michael Mosley, who said,

We have been sold on the idea that taking a pill solves everything.

The program concluded with the reminder of the World Health Organisation recommendations of 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise and two strength training sessions per week.

The SBS Insight program is available online and serves as a strong reminder of the importance of discussing general exercise levels with your patients.