Doctors in the new physical activity awareness program at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center don't just prescribe diet pills for their patients -- they prescribe specific exercise regimens to whip overweight Upper Valley residents into shape.
The program's patients fill out questionnaires about their exercise habits, and physicians give them prescriptions with detailed assignments, such as walking for a half hour every day.
"Instead of just vaguely saying, 'You should exercise more,' we put it in writing and sign it like a prescription to give it a little more weight," program director Dr. Charles Brackett said. "We're more specific about it."
DHMC formed the prescription program after being approached by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance, a coalition of trail and land protection organizations.
The UVTA received a $200,000 five-year grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in November 2003 to form Upper Valley Trails for Life, which aims to improve the health of Upper Valley residents through use of the area's extensive trail system.
Brackett said the prescription idea is an old trick that has been used in the past to help people quit drinking or smoking. A recent study in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" noted that obesity will soon pass smoking as the leading cause of preventable death if current trends continue.
While many doctors encourage patients to quit smoking, most don't even give general recommendations regarding exercise.
"Exercising is as important for your health as quitting smoking is for a smoker," Brackett said. "Sixty-five percent of Americans are thought to not be meeting that half an hour a day physical requirement, and that's a pretty modest exercise expectation."
Physicians provide their patients with a brochure about integrating physical activity into their daily routines. The brochure lists the website and phone number for Upper Valley Trails for Life, putting access to organized physical activities, like the Savvy Senior Snowshoe Excursion offered by the Lebanon Recreation and Parks Department, at patients' fingertips.
In the near future, the UVTA plans to publish a guidebook titled, "Go Walking! A Guide to Walking in the Heart of the Upper Valley," with maps of selected trails in Hanover and Lebanon as well as in Norwich and Hartford, Vt. DHMC physicians will offer the guidebook to patients for a dollar.
To make the guide accessible to all Upper Valley residents, the guide will also list organizations with information about trails outside the immediate area.
Physicians will also offer pedometers for $4 so patients can track the number of miles they walk and the calories they burn. Follow-up calls from Dartmouth Medical students will further encourage patients to meet their physical activity goals.
UVTA Executive Director Wally Elton said he wants to expand the program to other hospitals in the area. Brackett has pitched the idea to The Buckroad Family Medicine Group, and Brackett also plans to speak about the program at the Lyme Clinic and the White River Family Practice.
Apart from promoting other area programs, the UVTA offers its own excursions and free rentals of ice skates and snowshoes to College staff and faculty free of cost, thanks to sponsorship from the Dartmouth Health Awareness Program.
College employees striving to maintain physical health participate in the fitness program together.
The group dynamic helps spur continued involvement, said UVTA intern Ryan Counter '06, who leads outings of about 15 participants.
"They socialize together, and the same people come back every time," Counter said.
The outings are offered weekly from noon to 1 p.m. The fall series drew 25 participants, according to Counter. Group members in this term's series went snowshoeing on trails around the golf course and Nordic ice-skating on Occom Pond.
For many of participants the physical benefits of the outings extended well beyond the end of the series.
"They're more active than they had been previously," Counter said. "They say they're going out now on weekends with their spouses and friends."
Organized excursions open to all Upper Valley residents will begin in the spring.
