By DR. VICTOR S. SIERPINA
In high school physics class, I learned from Sir Isaac Newton that a body in motion will stay in motion. The opposite is true and it is called inertia. The other day in clinic, I went in to see Dylan, a 12 year old. He didn’t look up or say hi to me as I came into the room as he was intently working his thumbs on a handheld device. His mother told him to be polite and say hello. He raised his head briefly, said, “Hi,” then back to the gaming thing. She shrugged apologetically and helplessly. I won’t dwell on how we should socialize the digital generation to learn polite human interaction, though it is quite relevant to bodies in motion.
Dylan’s complaint was a minor one and he basically came in needing a school excuse. It could have been a 5 to 10 minute visit but I noticed he was a bit chunky. In fact, his BMI at 29 was close to the obese range. At mom’s request, we ran a urine and blood test to make sure he wasn’t diabetic. He wasn’t, fortunately, at least not yet.
I asked Dylan what kinds of sports or other activities he liked to do. Mom motioned to me with both thumbs moving rapidly to mime the reality of his activity.
“Baseball, basketball, bowling, bicycling, skateboarding, surfing, soccer, tennis, walking?” I inquired. He looked at mom plaintively and said, “Swimming, as soon as summer comes.” During the rest of the year, his main exercise apparently was “thumbing.” Dylan’s mom was very grateful that I took some time to counsel him on increased physical activity as she had been encouraging him to do. However, without some persistent intervention, I suspect that the dominant culture of inactivity and digital finger exercises as his main sport would persist.
This is a crisis for children with the epidemic rise in obesity and diabetes related to many factors. Among them, physical inactivity is a predominant issue. And while recent surveys report that over a quarter of American adults report NO physical activity over the preceding year, we hypocritically bemoan our children’s’ fat and their medical fates.
Not all movement occurs in PE, the gym, track, or other sports activity. In fact, I think it unhelpful to think of healthy activity solely in this way for many folks. A study of hotel maids showed that when asked about their fitness activities, the majority said they did little or none. As you know, these people work in very physical ways like vacuuming, making beds, cleaning bathrooms, and pushing heavy carts. When educated that their work actually was quite active and counted as real exercise, they reported improvement in mood, and were found within a month to have decreased blood pressure and even lost several pounds.
So please move before you or your kids die of inertia. Family times can be more activity centered. Leave the computer or phones behind and move, walk, stretch, breathe. Attitude and motivation are keys to challenging you and family to achieve your best.