Coronavirus: GPs to prescribe cycling in new obesity strategy [BBC News]

[David9694]

The causes of obesity are many. We live in a less industrialised world where most work is of a sedentary nature.Supermarkets are awash with calories, transport is so easy. Out of the house, into car, out of car into office and so on. There are many solutions to inactivity. Perhaps a long term start is more traffic congestion, less parking spaces. We are trapped in a cycle of more road building, more bypasses to speed up traffic. The more congestion the better. If it is seen that it is quicker to cycle, walk or use better public transport, then perhaps the car would not be the transport of choice.
Fewer licences for fast food outlets, no food advertising allowed, no daytime tv. A long term change in lifestyle to try and get us all back to a more active life is needed. As long as car ownership is seen as a sign of success and food is advertised there will never be any change in obesity levels.
Fitness regimes always show people huffing and puffing, going at it like Olympic athletes, when what is needed is a focus on sustaining a whole life activity. Move more, eat less, enjoy being active.
I’m now off to my GP to get a prescription for a Pinnarello.

[My emphasis] If the congestion was consistent, that argument might just about stack up (but the environment takes a hit), but it isn’t - sometimes you can sail through, other times it’s grim and it’s amazing how much “grim” drivers will put up with - like someone feeding a pub fruit machine - another pull could be the big win. When I say “put up with”, I mean get frustrated, do MGIF, etc.

[mikeymo]

My own personal experience was that when, as a frequent cyclist, I began to get pains in my chest when climbing hard, I explained to my GP with reference to a local modest hill so he would have an idea of what I was talking about. He simply could not believe that I was cycling all the way up.

(For anybody with local knowledge, I was referring to the the drag up the A 58 Whitehall Road from the Leeds Ring Road up to the turn off for Gildersome.

There's an ironic sign on that very road now!



It's not on any of my regular cycling routes, but I've driven up it a few times. Long, but not particularly steep I'd have thought.

[thirdcrank]

mikeymo

My point was that it's not at all steep, just a drag on my ride home from my mother's in Armley in those days, but the GP simply could not believe that I was riding up it and not walking. Older readers may remember that a couple of us Leeds Loiners used to go chevronning - seeing how many OS chevrons we could climb in a day with no repeats. In 2003 we did 130 miles centred on Pateley Bridge and I think it was 72 chevrons.

(On reflection, it may have been the drag up Tong Road from the Ring Road to Farnley I used as the example, but it's still a pimple compared with climbs in the Dales.)

FWIW, re that poster, in those days I was no longer at my slimmest, but by no means obese.

I've since come to realise that rotating shifts are a killer. I've never smoked and my cholesterol was at the lower end of normal.

[mikeymo]

My point was that it's not at all steep, just a drag on my ride home from my mother's in Armley in those days,

Yes, I thought that's what you meant. I agree with you (and not the doctor) - long, but not steep.

I've since come to realise that rotating shifts are a killer. I've never smoked and my cholesterol was at the lower end of normal.

Police officers' shifts sound bonkers to me. At least when I worked in a factory on shifts it was either "earlies" or "lates". And I slept at night. I think studies have proved that shift working is bad for one's health.

[thirdcrank]

I'm drifting away from the thread, but colleagues often referred to night shifts as "coffin nails." There's no standard system of police shifts and after the various amalgamations, it was normal for there to be multiple systems within a single force. In Leeds, the system was intended to maximise the length of rest days ie they were usually preceded by an early turn and followed by a late. That meant that there were four quick changeovers - finishing at 2200 and back at 0600 the following morning - every four weeks. The standard night week ended at 0600 on Monday and by Friday it was early turn after a quick changeover.

A couple of other things didn't improve my long-term health. One was that when I started, there was a canteen boycott to protest about the poor service or rather a cook who only looked after the bosses. I got used to not eating at work, which I realise is just the way to get diabetes, especially when working shifts. Another is that the majority of my service was as a patrol inspector, when it was assumed you would take a flexible attitude to being messed about over things like shifts.

Only my impression but I believe there are nowadays far fewer police working nights.

I'm not grumbling BTW. I've just passed the 23rd anniversary of my retirement at age 52 and the pension gives me a comfortable standard of living.

[Jdsk]

I've since come to realise that rotating shifts are a killer.

Yes, and understudied and often neglected.

2018 review of associations with type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease, and some thoughts on mechanism:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11892-018-1102-5

Jonathan

[thirdcrank]

The 23rd anniversary of my retirement also coincided with the 53rd anniversary of my swearing to serve my Sovereign Lady the Queen in the Office of Constable .....

Apart from PC 18 Moran giving me some early advice see "coffin nails" above, I missed all the rest until it was much too late.

I should have added that as well as the pension, I enjoyed my career, even though I would have preferred more sleep.

[Oldjohnw]

Voucher website collapses

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-53576008

[mikeymo]

Another is that the majority of my service was as a patrol inspector, when it was assumed you would take a flexible attitude to being messed about over things like shifts.

A chap I used to work with (in music) joined WYP, and was confident that he would know his shift patterns weeks in advance, so would be able to continue doing some playing work. As far as I know that didn't happen, unsurprisingly.

Mind you, last time I saw him (coming out of Tescos on Roundhay Road, covered in guns) he was extolling the virtues of retiring at a relatively young age, which means he will probably be retired by now, so could be available for shows.

[thirdcrank]

Was his first name Howard, by any chance?

[Jdsk]

Doh! There's existing NICE guidance on "prescribing " exercise so there'll be a literature review somewhere behind that.
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ph54

NB recommendations differ depending on existing health conditions.

Jonathan

PS: Heard this on Inside Health but I should have known anyway.

[atoz]

I agree, although with one exception.

A relative lives in a largeish village about 10 miles from Ipswich. Car ownership is pretty much universal there. Without it that village could not exist. In fact since agriculture became mechanised there was an exodus of people to towns and cities. Cars have made it possible for rural villages to survive. Even with them a lot of small villages and hamlets have disappeared. The rate of car ownership is around 85% in that area. Cycling is ok for local village to village trips. Not everyone can work in Ipswich, what if your job is further afield eg Bury or Felixstowe. That's a lot of cycle commuting, on rural roads with poor visibility and no street lighting.

Without cars a lot of rural areas will die. Think of those old pit villages miles away from big towns and cities, which have never had good public transport.

I agree with encouraging cycling, but it's important to recognise there are limitations.

I can't think of many (any?) other activities which are a utility physical activity in themselves, but can also be undertaken as a leisure pursuit or organised sport.

Running, i.e. what you do when you need to get somewhere when you're late.

The monstrous "elephant-in-the room" is (perceived) need to move around in 1+tonne metal boxes to achieve normal living functions. Everyone now plans their lives expecting to travel around a lot, using motorised transport.

I think there is a more insidious and even more deeply embedded underlying cause, which is housing and planning. As a society we have made it attractive for people to live too far from workplaces, schools and shops to cycle or - better still - walk to them. This has been largely due to unintended consequences, e.g. designating areas for housing and industry development that are completely separate and too far apart for people to walk to work.

The quality and price of housing is another major factor. We have encouraged excessive social stratification, with too many people moving further away from where they work because the housing close by is of poor quality or in an undesirable area. More recently high transaction costs have made it increasingly expensive to move when changing employment: rather than pay the stamp duty or the rental fees/deposit to move closer to work, it's cheaper just to drive further to the new workplace (and safer if the employment might not last, e.g. freelance/contracting/zero hours contracts). Workforce mobility is important for the economy, but our tax system and social policies discourage it.

The underlying problem may not be transport policy and infrastructure, but housing and planning policy. If people are able and can afford to live close to their workplaces, schools, shops and community facilities, they are more likely to walk and cycle. Such a change on a large scale would create its own momentum: more people will start walking and cycling if others around them are doing it, and that in turn will result in better conditions for people walking and cycling (both public, e.g. road infrastructure, and private, e.g. bike storage). Whether the huge increase in car ownership and miles driven over the last 50 years is the cause of this or has only enabled it, is beside the point.

[PaulaT]

Voucher website collapses

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-53576008

Which is annoying (and predictable) but it shows there's an awful lot of people who want to get on their bikes. I think we should be very happy about that

[Oldjohnw]

Voucher website collapses

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-53576008

Which is annoying (and predictable) but it shows there's an awful lot of people who want to get on their bikes. I think we should be very happy about that

I have an awful feeling that many of the visitors were existing cyclists wanting a freebie.

[Grandad]

I wonder how many LBS's will accept these vouchers as they involve extra work to claim the money from the government,