Prescription for a happier planet
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March 20, 2016 9:00 PM
Someday, maybe not too far into the future, a doctor’s seven simple words to one patient will have altered the trajectory of millions of overweight, depressed and otherwise unhealthy Americans.
Our next appointment is at the gym.
Those words were spoken a year ago by Dr. Joseph Abate of Heritage Health in Coeur d’Alene. His patient was a 36-year-old Post Falls man suffering from heart disease, chronic pain, obesity and depression. He was taking a dozen medications. That man and 25 other patients — all of them medically overweight or obese, and 20 either diabetic or pre-diabetic — comprised the first class of what Dr. Abate called Kroc Rx.
With help from his own staff and the Salvation Army-infused Kroc Center team, Dr. Abate launched a program that has, in its first full year, graduated some 500 people. The eight-week program doesn’t necessarily cut body weights in half, though there are some remarkable stories of serious weight loss. It doesn’t necessarily banish a person’s depression to an alternate universe, never to return again. But it gives them a fighting chance to improve the quality of their lives physically, emotionally and spiritually.
While Kroc Rx has focused almost exclusively on Heritage Health patients who tend to come from lower-income backgrounds, Dr. Abate has recently welcomed patients from other health care providers. Emphasizing that he doesn’t want to compete with anybody, he’s finding ways to build bridges so almost anybody anywhere could change their lives.
It’s astonishing to see what this program is doing. Part of its success is due to the medical and behavioral health expertise behind it. Part is its holistic approach, so an exercise program tailored to an individual’s abilities is complemented with expert advice on nutrition; once those pounds come off, they aren’t replaced. And part of it — a big part, we think — is the way it gets so many people out of their personal dark places into the bright, welcoming light of social interaction in a healthy environment.
As today’s one-year anniversary story explains, Kroc Rx has gained national attention on multiple levels. It isn’t just a local feel-good success story; it’s got the potential to become a model that’s replicated in some form anywhere there are sad, sick people who want to get better.
What’s horrible news for the pharmaceutical industry is inspiring for everybody else. From a fiscal perspective, just imagine what could happen if the scales were tipped so the 5 percent to 20 percent of patients who cost the most in medical care slid over to the other end of the scale. And from a compassionate viewpoint, imagine our community, our state, our nation transforming so overall, we’re much healthier and more productive. Thinking really big thoughts, what if happiness better balanced or obliterated the anger that seems endemic in American society?
Dr. Abate is showing us how. We can hardly wait to see what Year 2 has in store — maybe for you or someone you love.
Those words were spoken a year ago by Dr. Joseph Abate of Heritage Health in Coeur d’Alene. His patient was a 36-year-old Post Falls man suffering from heart disease, chronic pain, obesity and depression. He was taking a dozen medications. That man and 25 other patients — all of them medically overweight or obese, and 20 either diabetic or pre-diabetic — comprised the first class of what Dr. Abate called Kroc Rx.
With help from his own staff and the Salvation Army-infused Kroc Center team, Dr. Abate launched a program that has, in its first full year, graduated some 500 people. The eight-week program doesn’t necessarily cut body weights in half, though there are some remarkable stories of serious weight loss. It doesn’t necessarily banish a person’s depression to an alternate universe, never to return again. But it gives them a fighting chance to improve the quality of their lives physically, emotionally and spiritually.
While Kroc Rx has focused almost exclusively on Heritage Health patients who tend to come from lower-income backgrounds, Dr. Abate has recently welcomed patients from other health care providers. Emphasizing that he doesn’t want to compete with anybody, he’s finding ways to build bridges so almost anybody anywhere could change their lives.
It’s astonishing to see what this program is doing. Part of its success is due to the medical and behavioral health expertise behind it. Part is its holistic approach, so an exercise program tailored to an individual’s abilities is complemented with expert advice on nutrition; once those pounds come off, they aren’t replaced. And part of it — a big part, we think — is the way it gets so many people out of their personal dark places into the bright, welcoming light of social interaction in a healthy environment.
As today’s one-year anniversary story explains, Kroc Rx has gained national attention on multiple levels. It isn’t just a local feel-good success story; it’s got the potential to become a model that’s replicated in some form anywhere there are sad, sick people who want to get better.
What’s horrible news for the pharmaceutical industry is inspiring for everybody else. From a fiscal perspective, just imagine what could happen if the scales were tipped so the 5 percent to 20 percent of patients who cost the most in medical care slid over to the other end of the scale. And from a compassionate viewpoint, imagine our community, our state, our nation transforming so overall, we’re much healthier and more productive. Thinking really big thoughts, what if happiness better balanced or obliterated the anger that seems endemic in American society?
Dr. Abate is showing us how. We can hardly wait to see what Year 2 has in store — maybe for you or someone you love.