This blog is written from Holland, where I just gave the keynote address at a Conference at Radboud University in Nijmegen. The conference focused on the science of movement. As succinctly put by the organizer, Professor Sander Geurts “The motto “Let’s move!”  is a hint for all our patients and for all others that movement is a key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.”

The conference began with Professor Hopman pointing out that people have become more inactive over the last 150 years. She recalled an old study in which both bus conductors and drivers in London were studied. This study found that the conductors who were on there feet all the time were much less likely to have heart attacks than the drivers. Another study found that exercise training following a heart attack was better at reducing the chance of future heart attacks than was angioplasty. The Copenhagen city study found that people who were more active were less likely to die from heart attacks. Obese, inactive children have now been shown to develop atherosclerosis in their early teens. Physical inactivity is also associated with increased cancer clinic. The Cooper Clinic in Texas has found that “fitness protects against fatness”!

Professor Geurts gave a fascinating talk pointing out that it takes most people 22 weeks of  physical therapy to become independent after they had a stroke. However he went on to stress that it often takes years of exercise and therapy to make an optimal recovery. Their research is showing that electrical stimulation of leg muscles can accelerate the restoration of original muscle function.

Maud Graff presented the work from her theses in which she provided community occupational therapy for older persons with dementia and their caregivers. The occupational therapy was predominantly getting them involved in gardening projects. After a series of projects she did a community wide study and showed that occupational therapy  (supervised gardening)  lead to a cost savings of nearly $2500 as well as improving daily function and making the caregiver feel happier about themselves. 

The BOTTOM LINE: Having spontaneous physical fun (SPF) is good for preventing disease and for making us stronger when we are sick. Dutch females live nearly three years longer than females in the USA. While in Holland, I walked a mile to the conference center and back to the hotel and a mile and a half to the station; in the States someone would have driven me. As I walked I had to dodge indeterminable numbers of bicycles, the major way most Dutch get around. The Japanese walk over 10,000 steps a day; many of us struggle to get above 5,000. As the song in the movie Madagascar, said ” I like to move it, move it…physically fit, physically fit.” This is a message we cannot afford to ignore.