What do you think about GP's prescribing you 'a walk'?

[StrawberryMarble]

I just heard this on radio 4, that GP's will be able to prescribe a walk or a bike ride etc. We all know we need to move more & not lead sedentary lives. I don't disagree that we need to get moving & keep our fitness, especially as we get older. But I can see a few people getting upset over this. I think it might be a common prescription with waiting times post covid being so long.

@AquaticSewingMachine thank you! MS medication can be so potent and effect you mentally. I came off the worst offender and swapped it for outdoor swimming.

It was an incredible change and the good effects were almost immediate. It was my neurologists idea!

I love hiking and so many routes are now accessible so whether I'm on foot, or on foot with a stick - I can still get out and about.

A lot of people need to be told to take daily exercise, so I don't have a problem with it. They may prefer drugs or some easy fix that they can do from their sofa, but many people with many conditions, particularly MH ones, would really benefit from regular exercise. Human bodies aren't designed to sit down all day long and sedentary lives are much more likely to be unhealthy than active ones. So what do you want doctors to do - gloss over the fact that the depressed, anxious patient in front of them would benefit from something that is free and instead prescribe drugs???

Well done @HikingHeidi swimming and cycling really helped me get better when I had terrible sciatica.

I've got my weight down from a whopping 131kg to just 95kg just by walking regularly over many years. My diet is awful (far too many ready meals, crisps, cakes, chips, etc) but daily walking keeps things under control and there's a slow but steady fall in weight. If I could give myself a kick up the arse to do something about my unhealthy eating, I'd be able to get my weight down a lot quicker!

Thing is that my health is now a lot better than it was when I was 131kg - my blood pressure is now in the healthy range, my blood sugars are under control, I don't have the same aches & pains in my legs and joints. I honestly feel decades younger, despite still being grossly overweight.

We really need to start looking after ourselves more instead of relying on the NHS/GPs to "medicate" us out of our unhealthy life choices.

I think going for a walk is great advice. Good for both mental and physical health. However the doctor who told me I needed to “get away for the weekend without your children” when the youngest was 9 months old was living in cloud cuckoo land!

I would love to do that but stupidly anxiety makes me frightened of leaving the house to go for the walk in the first place - the thought of going outside and ending up in a panic attack which can completely floor me and not being able to get help - is absolutely terrifying in itself .

If there was someone to go with me the first few times I’d do it today, but I don’t think that sort of thing exists (no friends or family who’d have the time sadly) .

I had quite hideous depression and anxiety a few years ago. The GP was sympathetic but their solution was anti-depressants. I decided to exercise instead and it's been a real solution rather than dulling the symptoms. Getting out in the fresh air (I run. A lot....) is quite magical for clearing the fog that builds up inside my head and allowing me to think clearly. It certainly doesn't have any harmful side effects (I may revise this opinion when my knees and hips are buggered...) and has a cost to the NHS of exactly £0.

I think perhaps for some, the gym is seen as so far removed from their current lifestyle that it isn't an option, but perhaps a simple smart watch and being given little goals might be do-able. Even if that goal is to walk 2000 steps a day in fresh air 3 times a week.

@changenickname could you try ringing a family member or friend and go for a twenty minute walk and phone call? Then if you did feel overwhelmingly anxious you'd be on the phone and not far from home? You could ring a different person each day and then progress to music or an audio book instead of a phone call.

You might surprise yourself and really enjoy it. It would build your confidence in yourself up if you could.

They've been doing this for years though so not sure why this is "news" many surgeries employ "social prescribers" in this area and their job is to help people to find social rather than medicinal solutions to health problems. My friend does this job and she runs very, very basic exercise classes for six week blocks then recommends them a local class that would suit them in the longer term. She also runs healthy cookery classes, walking groups and has links with organisations like books groups, choirs and churches to signpost people towards them if loneliness and isolation is contributing towards the difficulties.
I do think it's a really good idea but not sure why it's considered newsworthy today.

Oh great, another thing to get fobbed off with along with ' it's long Covid ' 🙄

They can also prescribe "Books on Prescription" which are self help books available through libraries.
I worked in a library and they were very successful.

Exercise doesn’t work for CFS/ME (which includes Long Covid) though. So I hope GPs realise that as GET was part of therapy for CFS/ME until recently when they found out it makes people worse not better and updated the NICE guidelines.

Yes, there are a lot of initiatives like this which have been rumbling on for a while with no complaints, just that the media like GP bashing these days. It's also difficult for doctors to say someone's weight is likely affecting their health without cries of fat shaming, not being taken seriously and whatever else, if presented as a prescription makes it more palatable for people then sounds good (although pathetic that its needed).

It's a great idea. I hope they get more involved in helping people improve their diet as well.

There are SO many health issues that can be solved - or at least improved - by changing diet and exercise. Unfortunately, lots of people just want a magic pill to solve everything, and don't want to have to stop eating crap or get off their arses.

around 25 years ago my neighbour ws prescribed the gym,
persumably paid for

i doubt they would do that now

If the "prescription" implies mandatory time off work at full pay to fit the regular walking into an over-stretched lifestyle the that's great. Or if it comes with a voucher for additional free childcare/respite care if the person doesn't have a job but has caring responsibilities for individualswgose needs aren't compatible with a brisk walking pace. And comes with help for bus fares if the area local to the person's home isn't safe for a walk or is next to a fumy polluted dual carriageway or mortorway.

If there's no funding, it's just cheery advice to go for a regular walk without addressing the barriers that prevent people from doing this then it's offensively patronising.

Depends on how it is done. I dismissed the benefits of walking when I was younger and thought exercise had to be done in a gym or sports pitch to be proper exercise. Now I think it is absolutely brilliant and can be the best medicine and the least intimidating, easiest thing for many people to do. Yoga is also like medicine to me.

But it shouldn't be prescribed in place of other very much needed treatment. And someone being very overweight is often as a result of illness or injury, not the other way round and GPs just see the weight.

I remember DH forcing me to go for walks during a mental health episode a few years back. It does help. I find I talk more to my DH when out than back home.

Now I have a lot of weight to shift and even though I'm only 44 I find walking any great distance tiring and painful...but if I don't walk I will never shift the weight and start to feel better physically. I think that's why many people give up, because of the initial feelings you get when you start a new activity.

As an aside my MiL was offered a month's free leisure centre pass in her 60s to try and encourage her to do more exercise. The GP said it was funded by the local health authority. I'd rather the NHS looked at preventative measures like this to build good habits rather than dealing with the fallout of them later in life.

Wouldn’t work for me.

I already walk and or cycle every day. Does it help my MH - possibly but my MH has been very poor nonetheless.

I don't think it's anything new. The GP has been telling my mum for years that she should do some gentle exercise to help ease her back pain but all she does is sit and watch the tv and complains.

Our gp has a walking group, it's "prescribed" to get people moving but also stop loneliness

Unfortunately the general consensus is that people with CFS and ME don't want to help themselves and get labeled with laziness.

I know this because one of the medical staff at my GP surgery mistook my MS diagnosis as ME. She was rather cold and unpleasant - as soon as I told her I had MS she was compassionate and helpful.

It's happened to me a few times. It must be very difficult having CFS / ME with medics treating you like that. :(

GPs will, but generally only if there’s a good prospect of engagement and they like to see you having already made your own efforts to improve your fitness first which indicate the gym is right for you. Prescribing a gym membership for somebody who uses it twice and then gives up because they don’t like it or can’t be bothered is pointless, when you may be more likely to follow an exercise plan of walking instead.

That’s a recommendation not a prescription. Are they going to warn of the side-effects of cycling in our very congested city? Will you get a bike if you pay the prescription charge?

I’m a keen walker but this sounds like another way of making the point that if you phone the GP surgery, someone will phone you back and fob you off with the bleeding obvious that you tried already.