Clinical Exercise Physiologist (CEP): The Emerging of Exercise is Medicine

The World Health Organization (WHO) accounts that every group age of all regions and countries have an association with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) that kill 41 million people globally per annum, which is equivalent to 74% of all recorded deaths. The main list of NCDs are diabetes, cancers, cardiovascular and chronic respiratory diseases such as stroke and heart attacks, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. There is another group that requires attention, which are in the state of sub-optimal health (SHS) condition. SHS defines the borderline between health and disease that helps measure vitality, physiological function, adaptive capacity, undiagnosed medical condition and functional somatic syndromes. The risk of both NCDs and SHS are associated with habitual lifestyle, such as poor stress management and self-actualization, sedentary, and lacking in interpersonal skills. Hence, exercise physiology plays a critical role in our scientific community adjacent to the healthcare trends.

The Clinical Exercise Physiologist (CEP) who works in conjunction with the primary care doctors, Bariatric surgeon, dietitian and the rehabilitation multidisciplinary team (the physiotherapists, occupational therapist and speech therapist) can provide necessary knowledge about health through testing and prescribing exercise plans to enhance the overall health status of the clients/patients.

Testing evaluates health-related fitness:

CEP uses medical fitness equipment to test and analyze a patient's fitness baseline level, such as aerobic submaximal oxygen test, maximal muscle strength and endurance, and flexibility. Tests also include body composition (Percentage of body fat and muscle content), and vitals such as blood pressure, consumption of oxygen in different states of mobility and other health indicators. For instance, from the clinical experience, a cardiovascular specialist may refer for CEP to execute an aerobic testing that can be as simple as a 6-minute walking test to brisk walking with a set of intensity progression (submaximal Bruce protocol) on the treadmill depending on the severity of case referred, to obtain the patient’s level of cardiovascular fitness and the result of testing as an outcome measure to predict the type of exercise suitable and also as a monitoring of progression. Another clinical example, exercise prescription is also an alternative to improve the spectrum of autism with psychiatric specialist referral especially for children and adolescent.

Personalised prescription based on exercise testing:

CEP will devise a tailored-program to suit how your body adapts and stimulates muscle function for all age groups. In addition, CEP may also work with patients that suffer from chronic conditions or reduced mobility that is either temporary or permanent to help improve their quality of health and life. Otherwise, CEP helps patients with exercise wellness plans for those who got newly diagnosed with NCDs such as hypertension, diabetes or hypercholesterolemia, or even to improve mental health and psychological condition. Nonetheless, CEP can also help with exercise counselling alongside with habitual behavioural coaching and health education.

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