Our current Healthcare system is not at all interested in trying to make our society healthier, and instead would rather keep spending more money, to give more treatment, to more unhealthy people. In the process any one who is employed by the healthcare system is getting richer, even though our societies health is getting poorer. If our current healthcare system is not changed, not only will healthcare insurance premiums continue to rise, but we can expect that the health of our country will continue to fall.

         I do not think that too many people would disagree with the fact that if society were healthier, and thus decreased the demand for health treatment services, then healthcare costs would have to drop. So the bigger question about healthcare reform should be…how do we get society healthier?  The answer has to be Preventive Health. There is only one small problem… There is no “Preventive Health” industry. Our current healthcare industry certainly does not offer preventive health services, so when we talk about preventive health, what we are really talking about is the “Fitness” industry. It is in this “Fitness/Preventive Care” industry that we find the Exercise, Nutrition, and Wellness industries, as well as any other industry that is designed make you healthier before a problem happens or symptoms occur. Unfortunately, the problem is that the entire Fitness/Preventive Health industry is not a part of our Healthcare System. We hear the term “Health and Fitness” used together all the time, but in actuality they are two entirely different industries. The biggest difference between the two is healthcare insurance. If your healthcare insurance can potentially pay for it, then it should be considered part of the health industry, and if your healthcare insurance will not cover it then it is usually because it is part of the fitness industry. In other words if you get hurt, get sick, or need drugs, then healthcare companies can help you out, but if you want to lead a healthy lifestyle and try to prevent health related illness than you are going to have to pay for it on your own. There is no reason for healthcare insurance companies to pay for fitness/preventive services, when from a business stand point the healthcare industry actually competes against the fitness/preventive care industry. The problem becomes that due to the restrictions of healthcare insurance, professionals of either industry never really interact with each other, and even though Health and Fitness are two very different industries, they are certainly two industries that affect each other, and in the process affect the overall health of our country.

              Besides health and fitness being two different industries, they are also two industries that know very little about each other. Most people assume that healthcare professionals are knowledgeable about health. This is simply not true. They are really only knowledgeable about the treatment of health, and have no more knowledge about fitness and preventive health than the average person would. I know this because doctors are a big part of the clientele that come to me for advice about preventive health. 75 years ago people would go to their family doctor for anything relating to the body what so ever, but as science has progressed over the years we have seen more and more specialization among doctors, and the same is true as it relates to Fitness and Preventive health. There is simply way to much information available and education needed within ones own profession, without trying to learn a different one. There is really no way to ever allow healthcare professionals to try to practice teaching Preventive Health because they do not have the specific education needed to do it, and  they have been trained to work in a system that succeeds from not doing it. This is also true of fitness professionals as it relates to healthcare. Even though professionals of both industries have studied course work in anatomy, a doctor would know about as much about a muscular endurance test as an Exercise Physiologist would know about open heart surgery. The problem becomes that when someone goes to their doctor with common health related illnesses like obesity, hypertension, or diabetes (for the most part all preventable lifestyle diseases) they are going to be limited by the options that a healthcare professional presents to them.  A doctor can not send them to a fitness or nutrition specialist because it is not covered by healthcare insurance. It is not because fitness and proper nutrition will not help these conditions, it is because this is how the system works. What can the doctor do? They can treat your symptoms with drugs or surgeries or… they can tell you that you need to exercise and eat better, but what they can not do is give you any specifics, or send you in the right direction to get what you really need because they just don’t know. This is not their fault, it is not their job to know, they are simply limited by the system in which they work, and if they send you outside their system then it makes them no money.

         I am not completely narrow minded in my views on our current healthcare system. I do realize that our country still needs a lot of the existing services that our healthcare system does provide, and there is obviously a need for a lot of healthcare reform that has nothing to do with Preventive health and the health of our society.  It would be silly for me to think that preventive health could ever be an absolute replacement for health treatment, but I do believe that the two should be working together and not competing against each other.  As a country we are always going to need to have treatment available for our health issues, and in general our healthcare system has become very good at treating health.  Advancements in medicine and medical technologies are providing people with better options then they used to have, and the future of medicine does seam limitless. However, there needs to be a big shift in the way this country views health, and needs to start with our government. There needs to be steps taken to ensure that people are exposed to the correct information that will help them to be proactive about their health, instead of relying on our healthcare system to help them after problems occur. As individuals we all need to take more responsibility for our own health. I do not think that people that take a greater interest in their own health and use less healthcare services should be expected to pay the same insurance premiums as people that neglect their health and using more healthcare services. There are certainly circumstances where people can not always control all of their health issues, but as a whole there are a huge percentage of people that are making poor lifestyle choices, and are expecting everyone else to pay for it. With other insurances like “life” and “auto” it is accepted that we reward people with low risk, and charge more to people that are at high risk. Why not make this the norm for healthcare insurance. We should be giving people options that can result in lower healthcare costs, if they can show an increased health capacity and therefore a decreased likelihood for healthcare treatment. It is not an exact formula, but neither is auto or life insurance, and like most things in life it is based on probability. At the very least we would have is a lot of people that could be motivated to be healthier for financial reasons as well as for their own personal health . So my solution to healthcare would not only involve the reform of the existing system, but also include the addition of a qualified Preventive Health workforce to our healthcare system. This would ensure that the overall health of our society would continue to improve, decreasing the overall demand for healthcare treatment, and as a result lower healthcare costs.

      While it is absolutely essential for us to make our population healthier so that our insurance premiums can drop, there are some major problems with the Preventive Health/ Fitness industries that are supposed to be responsible for trying to make this happen. As Science has progressed in the last 25 years we have seen major scientific advancements in the fitness industry. It is now possible to get masters and or doctorate degrees in multiple Health Sciences (non Healthcare) including Exercise Physiology, Kinesiology, Biomechanics, Athletic Training, and Nutrition.  The problem is that even though there are numerous college degrees relating to fitness that can be obtained, the people that have these degrees represent less than 5% of the entire Fitness/Preventive health work force. That means that there are a lot of undereducated people responsible for trying to get our society healthier. In fact, I can not think of any other industry (let alone one this big, profitable, and important) that is represented by such an unqualified workforce. The truth is that there is absolutely no governing body or organization in the Fitness/Preventive health industry. It is an absolute “free for all.” Anyone can and does claim to be a part of these industries. What qualifications do they need to do so? None! While different persons or institutions may have their own qualifications or standards, there is no set guideline that everyone must adhere to, and this is where the problem comes from. There is so much important info about health and fitness that is available at the university level that is not making its way into society. I am not talking about cutting edge research, or complex anatomy and physiology, but rather the most basic and foundational information that being taught to the most highly educated professionals in the industry, but is not making its way to the general population. This important information is being lost, because it is so out numbered by all of the misinformation that exists in the industry.  If I had to guess, I would have to say that the information and techniques that I teach today will be the normal practice for the general population in about 15 years. The Science and education is here now, but it will take that long for there to be enough qualified people to effectively relay the info to the public. So what I am proposing is not so much a prediction of what a future trend will be… but rather me absolutely knowing what the trend will be, and trying to capitalize on it now instead of trying to play “catch up” later.

       In general, how old you are usually determines your primary reason for eating healthy and exercising. If you asked most people under 30 years old if they would rather look good or be healthy, most of them would say that they would rather look good. The older we get the more concerned about our health we become. If you asked most people over 60 years old the same question, most of them would say that they would rather be healthy. It is not that younger people do not want to be healthy, but they have to live in a society that puts more emphasis on their appearance. The problem is that a lot of people are basing their fitness routines on achieving a “look,” rather than actual health. Training to look like the cover of a fitness magazine is very different than training for overall health. People are becoming less healthy because they are leaving thing out of their eating and exercise routines that do not directly effect how they look. There are a lot of examples, but a great one is lower back care. When we look in the mirror we never see our back, so we basically  forget about it. We do see our abs, so most people will do 10 abdominal exercises before they do a single lower back exercise. The abdominals and the lower back are opposing or counteractive muscle groups. If you train one a lot more than the other than you are going to create an imbalance. This imbalance is a cause for lower back pain for many people. So in this case, training to get your abs to look good actually has hurt your lower back more than if you never did any abdominal exercises at all. Since strengthening our lower back is not going to make us look any better, most people are never going to do it unless some sort of injury or back pain occurs, and then they use back exercises as a treatment. It should be done as a form of prevention. I can not blame people for caring about how they look. Who doesn’t want to look good? However, people need to realize that trying to look healthy can actually be making them less healthy.

blog writen for all to view, but for those living in new york or long island feel free to contact for one on one fitness education or training.

The Health industry products and services include:

- All medical doctors and dentists
- Allied health professionals- nursing, radiology, respiratory therapy, cardiac rehab, anesthesiology, ect.
- Physical/ Occupational therapists
- Chiropractors
- Hospital care or home healthcare
- Medications, drugs, or prescriptions
- Medical supplies or equipment

Besides being covered by healthcare insurances, these products and services also have something else in common. They are used for treatment. Healthcare does not pay for products or services related to fitness or exercise. The reason is because fitness and exercise focus on prevention rather than treatment. In other words if you get hurt, get sick, or need drugs, then healthcare companies can help you out, but if you want to be healthy and try to prevent health related illness than you are going to have to do it on your own. There is no reason for these insurance companies to want you to be healthy because they are going to make all of their money from your treatment. I am not saying that on a personal level that your doctor wants you to be sick and hurt all of the time, but the industry as a whole will make more money if you are. When you look at the big picture it is societies need for healthcare that ultimately pays the salaries of everyone in the healthcare industry. We know that on an individual basis sometimes the less healthy you are, or if you have some preexisting conditions, you may pay a higher premium for your healthcare insurance. However, on a larger scale, the overall health of society determines the overall prices we all pay for healthcare. It is not a coincidence that this country is as unhealthy as it has ever been, and healthcare costs are also at an all time high. If all of a sudden the general public were healthier, got sick and injured less, needed less prescriptions, and went to the doctor less often, then healthcare costs would have to drop. It is simply a case of supply and demand. When we look at all of the areas that healthcare covers, there are literally trillions of dollars that can potentially be lost by a healthier society. When you talk about trillions of dollars you can be sure that there are going to be lots of pretty powerful people that are going to do what ever they can to make sure that society stays as unhealthy as possible. There is no better formula for success than actually creating the need for your product. ( Unheathy Society = Increased Heathcare Profits) This is nothing more than “Big Business” and there is no more powerful or profitable business in the world than health. Unfortunately an unhealthy person is more profitable than a healthy person to anyone in the business of health.

Besides health and fitness being two different industries, they are also two industries that know very little about each other. It is a big misconception that healthcare professionals are knowledgeable about fitness. This is not the case at all. Maybe that used to be the case about 75 years ago when people would go to their family doctor for anything relating to the body at all. As science has progressed there is more and more specialization among the health sciences. There is simply way to much information available and education needed within ones own profession, without trying to learn a different one. The same is true of fitness professionals as it relates to health. Even though both people have taken courses in anatomy, a doctor would know about as much about a muscular endurance test as an Exercise Physiologist would know about open heart surgery.

The problem is that if you go to your doctor with a health related illness like obesity, hypertension, or diabetes they are still not going to be able to give you the proper help you need. They can not send you to an exercise or nutrition specialist because your healthcare insurance will not cover it. It is not because exercise and proper nutrition will not help these conditions, it is because this is how the system works. What can your doctor do to help you? They can tell you that you need to exercise and eat better. Big surprise. Unfortunately, all they can do is tell you this, because they can not give you any specifics, or send you in the right direction to get what you need because they just don’t know. This is not their fault, it is not their job to know, they are simply limited by the system in which they work, and if they send you outside their system then it makes them no money.

Something else your doctor can do is what this country does more that any other country in the world. Prescribe you medication. Of all of the prescription drugs in the world, this country consumes more than half of them. We know that healthcare is one of the largest money making industries in the world, and what better way to make money then by marking up the price of a prescription drug 500-5000 %.

The last thing your doctor can do for you is recommend some sort of medical procedure. Gastric bypass surgery and stomach or intestine surgeries are becoming more and more popular because they are being covered more and more by healthcare insurance companies. If it is something that can make money for the healthcare industry, then than doctors are going to continue to recommend it. To the patient it sounds like a much quicker and easier fix then going on an exercise program and changing eating habits. Surgery is certainly not the healthier option, but it is the more profitable option. Most people are going to take the easiest way out, and this is being reinforced by a healthcare system that focuses on treatment, rather than prevention, even if it is not the best option. Is there really anyone out there that actually believes that someone in a lab coat mixing chemicals together for us to consume, or that someone cutting pieces out of our body, is a better solution than eating healthy and being active.

The Fitness Industry

Since healthcare insurance companies do not cover the products and services of the fitness industry it is not a trillion dollar industry. However when we look at all that the fitness industry does encompass, it is annually a multi billion dollar industry. It is still “big business” and it is still a very powerful and profitable industry.

Products and services typically associated with the fitness industry include

- Gym memberships
- Personal training
- Exercise classes- Aerobics, Yoga, Pilates, Karate, ect
- Private/Group consultations and lectures
- Fitness testing
- Sports, athletics, and recreation activities
- Books, magazines, and videos
- Home exercise products
- Sport/Recreation equipment and apparel
- Supplements, fitness foods and drinks, and nutritional aids

Even though Health and Fitness are two very different industries, they are certainly two industries that affect each other. Your physical health and well being can help or limit your ability to engage in fitness related activities, and following or not following a proper fitness and exercise program can affect your overall health. The problem is that due to the restrictions of healthcare insurance, professionals of either industry never really interact with each other.

One potential reason for insurance companies not paying for visits to fitness professionals is the lack of standardization within the fitness industry. In the health industry, before your services can be covered by healthcare insurance, you need to have a college degree and also pass a national or state issued certification. This is not the case in the fitness industry. There is no regulation in the Fitness Industry at all. As science has progressed in the last 25 years we have seen major improvements in the fitness industry, but there is still a long way to go. It is now possible to get masters and doctorate degrees in multiple Health Sciences including Exercise Physiology, Kinesiology, Biomechanics and Nutrition. So why is it so hard for the general public to become properly educated about health and fitness? Because with the current system that is in place it is more profitable to anyone in the business of fitness, to keep people unfit.

For more information on the current fitness industry see the “unregulated and undereducated workforce” section on this website.

At present time there are only two major certifying institutions that require a Health Science degree before you can become certified. They are the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).

Besides these two certifications (which I consider to be the only true certifications) there are four other major certifying institutions. The National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), the International Sports Science Association (ISSA), the American Council on Exercise (ACE), and the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America (AFFA). Although these organizations may be headed by fitness professionals that do have health science degrees, they do not require the same standard for people that wish to become certified through their organizations. How easy is it to become a member of one of these organizations? First consider that all of these personal trainer certifications can be obtained in three days or less. Then consider that more than half of all certified personal trainers in this country are going to be certified by one of these four organizations, (hundreds of thousands of trainers) and in 15 years in this industry I have never heard of a single case where someone attempted to become certified through any of these organizations and was not successful in doing so. I have however, heard of numerous cases where people were unsuccessful in trying to pass an ACSM or NSCA certification. I am certainly not saying that everyone who does possess a Health Science degree is going to be the perfect personal trainer, but to me a degree should be at least a minimum requirement. At the very least, you can be certain that the information, that someone with a degree has learned, is based on collective scientific theory, and not ones own personal theories. Lots of personal trainers will claim to have many years of experience. Certainly experience is important, but where that experience comes from and what it is based on is much more important. Trainers that have not gone through formal education are almost always going to be only experienced with their own philosophies and training methods. In most cases what happens is that trainers assume that if it worked for them, then it will work for you. Unfortunately the human body is a little more complicated than that.

The problem becomes that until the general public demands a higher standard, there is no reason for the existing industry to want to change. Lets say that you owned a fitness facility and could pay a college student or housewife, that just passed a weekend personal trainer certification, 15$/hr. to train people at your facility. Why would you then want to employ someone with an exercise science degree that you would have to pay 30$/hr. to when most people do not know what credentials to look for in a trainer anyway? This is how gyms and health clubs increase their profit margin. They are not going to charge more money to the consumer for their personal training session. They are going to make more money for themselves by paying less money per session to the trainer. How do you pay less money to a trainer? You lower your standard of trainer. To me when it comes to something as important as your health, nothing less than the highest standard should be acceptable. The problem is that most people that own gyms and health clubs are business men first, and fitness professionals second.

Unfortunately most of the general public does not realize the value of properly educated fitness professionals because they are being fooled by a trainers “image.” Most people assume that the trainer that looks the best is going to know the most, and therefore they are more likely to take advice about fitness from a celebrity or someone that looks great but has no real fitness education, before they would take advice from someone that may not look as good but does have a PhD. in Exercise Science. This is because most people fail to understand that a person’s ability to look good or be healthy themselves, and their ability to help others achieve the same results, is two very different things. Some people are going to look like they are in good shape regardless of what they eat or how they exercise; just like some people will never look like fitness models regardless of how hard they try. More people need to understand that exercises that work for one individual may not necessarily work, or be appropriate for someone else. We are all unique individuals with various strengths and weaknesses. We also have different abilities and limitations. Variables like age, gender, genetics/family history, injuries, medications, fitness level, time, and most importantly individual needs and goals should always be considered when developing a fitness program. However, due to the limited knowledge in some of these areas by most fitness professionals, these individualities do not get considered. There are very few trainers that will take the time to access you, see what makes you different from someone else, and then actually design a program for you specifically. Most personal trainers will simply show their clients part of the fitness routine that they use for themselves, regardless of who it is that they may be training. You can not train a 20 year old male athlete the same as a 35 year old pregnant woman, or a 50 year old male with high blood pressure and a hip replacement. When trainers only rely on their own experiences and interpretations they are not going to be able to effectively deal with anyone that is different than they are. Most trainers are relatively young and in good shape, most people that go to trainers are not. So if you are 50 years old and your trainer is 25, he has obviously not experienced the physical differences between the two of you, and if he has never been formally educated as to what those differences are, how can he train you different than anyone else? Now consider just a few of the major health conditions like neck/back pain, injuries/surgeries, diabetes, and hormone imbalances that affect millions and millions of people, but probably not a young and healthy trainer, and ask yourself how can they deal with these issues? Usually they can not, but they are going to try to make you believe that they know what they are doing. At the opposite end of the spectrum are very conditioned people or athletes. Very few personal trainers have been elite athletes, and the ones that have been, were not elite athletes in multiple sports. So again, if they have not experienced elite athletic training themselves and they have not been formally educated as to how you should train athletes, they are not going to be very effective in their methods of “Athletic Training.”

The next problem, that is a direct result of all the unqualified trainers out there, is what I call “cheerleading.” Since most trainers do not possess the knowledge needed to properly educate their clients, they try to push, motivate, and over train them into results. These methods can be very dangerous, and can result in more harm than good. Motivation is important, but it is only one of many components needed for a successful fitness program. Is it worth paying a trainer $50- $150/hr. to simply be motivating you? More importantly, is it worth paying someone that amount of money when they have no more formal education about fitness than you do?