interview “They wouldn’t need any more
Hyman wants fi tness clubs to be the community health centres of the future
In one of his websites – the fascinating Take Back Our Health (www.
takebackourhealth.org) – Hyman looks at the challenges to our health that come from the very fabric of our society, from governmental policy and health insurance systems to urban design and the food supply chain. “In terms of food supply, for example, the US government recommends that Americans eat fi ve servings of fruit and vegetables a day – yet only 3 per cent of our agricultural lands are devoted to growing fruit and veg. If everybody in America were to follow those guidelines, there wouldn’t be enough fruit and veg to go around. “Then there are other challenges, such as the Supreme Court decision that now allows corporations to be viewed as individuals, allowing for unrestricted funding of political candidates. That’s taken a situation that was already bad in terms of lobbyists and vested interests and made it worse – made it disastrous. It’s taken away the capacity of government to really do anything. “Ultimately change needs to be brought
in across the board, with comprehensive national targets on multiple levels. We need to change policies and subsidies. We have to encourage food companies to change the conversation and increase access to healthy food. We need to review the rules on food marketing to children, as well as limiting access to harmful foods in schools and across society as a whole – processed food, for example, and sodas, as the mayor of New
York is already trying to do. We have to educate consumers. We have to train more doctors and practitioners to deliver functional medicine. “We’re also lobbying for insurance companies to reimburse alternative medicine, because we need to pay for results, for what works. We need to pay for lifestyle treatment of chronic disease, and right now we’re not doing that.”
A new gym model So how can the fi tness industry get involved in all of this? “I think health clubs and gyms are already starting to help change the conversation by focusing not just on fi tness but also on nutrition,” says Hyman. “However, one current initiative that they could be involved in is a 12-week programme I’m launching in September. It’s an online lifestyle change programme for consumers that focuses on nutrition, fi tness, mental resilience, stress reduction, cooking skills and so on. It’s designed as something consumers can work through themselves, but there could certainly be a role for health clubs in supporting them throughout the process. “My vision generally would be for
fi tness centres to act as community centres, with fi tness instructors becoming more like health advocates or community health workers, engaging their members in groups and group education classes. Those sessions could be based on the 12-week curriculum I’ve created, with gym staff guiding people through the experience of health and lifestyle transformation.
36 Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital
qualifi cations – they’re already over- qualifi ed in terms of actual medical knowledge. People skills are much more important – having that willingness to support a group, guide people, offer peer support. I’d be very happy to talk to operators about that opportunity.” He continues: “If I were a health club operator, I’d look at how to build on the community customer base that I already have, getting people engaged in small groups both for fi tness programming and nutritional lifestyle programming, as well as for education. I’d look at introducing things like the 12-week lifestyle course. Any life skills members might need – cooking classes and so on – could also be offered. Really anything I could do to encourage people towards a truly healthy lifestyle. “It’s a logical extension for health
clubs, but I don’t think the opportunity has been fully leveraged yet. But these are the sorts of things that can turn fi tness centres into community centres, making them the new hospitals in a sense – places where disease is addressed directly and aggressively. “I’ve had a number of conversations with conventional doctors who simply don’t know what to do about lifestyle disease. Their approach doesn’t work and they don’t have anywhere to refer patients. They want a system that offers credible lifestyle education, so we have a huge opportunity with functional medicine. “Ultimately we need to get away from the one-to-one approach to healthcare that we see in doctors’ surgeries, and instead reach people in their tens of millions, in the environments where they live, work, eat, play and pray. That includes churches, fi tness centres and so on. Those will be the hospitals and healthcare centres of the future, and we need to encourage those organisations to be more proactive. We need to help them reinvent themselves as organisations that deliver community- based health leadership.”
Winning the war Hyman concludes: “I see lifestyle disease as needless suffering across the globe. We may not be able to win the war in Afghanistan or end all genocide, but we can win this war – it’s a solvable problem and we know the solution. That’s what drives me. I’d like to see everyone working together in the community, collectively, to claim back our health.”
healthclub@leisuremedia.com kate cracknell
august 2012 © cybertrek 2012
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