Doctors should encourage their patients to use active modes of transportation and an advocacy group has made that easier. The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment has provided a tool kit for health professionals with advice on how to sell the idea, and it will soon send members out to explain and sell the idea.
‘We get so many wins’
There are great benefits to having people walk or cycle to work or use public transit, says the association’s Kim Perrotta. “If we can get people to use active modes of transportation and public transit, we can increase their health, we can reduce air pollution, we can reduce greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change… We get so many wins.”
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‘The number one treatment for chronic disease’
“Physical activity is kind of the number one treatment for chronic disease. I think many doctors would say that if they could get their patients to do one thing to reduce their risk of chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes, it would be to be more physically active,” she adds.
“And studies have shown us that one of the most effective ways to do that is to get people to actually walk to work, to cycle to work, that’s one of the easiest ways to get people to get the levels of physical activity that they need.”
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