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Excellence in Health – The Olympic Ideal

Wednesday 11 June 2008
BMA House, London

The BMA organised a one-day conference entitled “Excellence in Health – The Olympic Ideal” on Wednesday 11 June 2008 at BMA House, London.

The conference explored the important role that exercise plays in achieving, maintaining and preserving good health. It identified how obstacles to taking exercise, both cultural and environmental, can be overcome.

The following wide range of topics were discussed:

• The health benefits of physical activity: trends and consequences
• Exercise and the obesity epidemic
• How exercise can help in the prevention of dementia
• How to engage children in exercise
• The role that physical activity can play in preventing and managing depression
• How do we change the culture/environment to make it easier for people to exercise?

Dr Stephanie Cook and Dr Mike Stroud, who have achieved outstanding success in their chosen fields of sport, were interviewed during the afternoon. They were asked about their experiences, their training regime and how they achieved the very highest levels of physical fitness and how this impacted on them, and their life.

Speakers' biographies

	Professor S Boyd Eaton Professor S Boyd Eaton trained at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Since 1972 he has practiced orthopaedic radiology in Atlanta, Georgia, where he has appointments in the Radiology & Anthropology Departments of Emory University. He was Medical Director at the Olympic Village Polyclinic for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games. He has long been interested in the relationship between human evolutionary experience and contemporary health. His publications on this topic began in the 1980’s with “Paleolithic Nutrition” and “The Paleolithic Prescription,” both considered seminal contributions to the emerging field of evolutionary health promotion.
	Professor Kenneth Fox Professor Fox has dedicated his career to research and policy development in the field of exercise and health. He was Scientific Editor for the recent Chief Medical Officer’s report on physical activity and health and has acted as a Special Advisor to the Health Select Committee Enquiry on Obesity, the government’s Foresight Panel for Obesity, and is a member of the scientific panel for the new Cross Governmental Obesity Strategy Unit. He is a Fellow of the British Association of Sport & Exercise Sciences, The Physical Education Association, and the American Academy of Kinesiology & Physical Education.
	Dr Keith Baar Dr Keith Baar received his Bachelor’s in Kinesiology from the University of Michigan where he also served as an Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach with the University of Michigan Football team. He then received a Master’s from the University of California, Berkeley while teaching strength and conditioning, and his Ph.D from the University of Illinois in the laboratory of Dr Karyn Esser. He did his postdoctoral studies on the molecular mechanism underlying the muscular adaptation to endurance exercise under the direction of Dr John O Holloszy at Washington University in St Louis. Dr Baar is currently the Head of the Functional Molecular Biology Laboratory (FMBL) in the Division of Molecular Physiology at the University of Dundee.
	Dr Gaynor Parfitt Dr Parfitt is a Sport & Exercise Psychologist, BASES accredited for research, a Fellow of BASES, and an Honorary Research Fellow of Baptist University, Hong Kong. Dr Parfitt's early research was in the area of anxiety and performance and during that time she worked with a number of international squads. More recently, her research has focused upon the chronic and acute effects of exercise on well-being, motivational issues within the exercise and rehabilitation environment and research on Perceived Exertion (scale validity, reliability and utility). Her research populations include children and adults (sedentary and active populations).
	Professor Michael Frenneaux Professor Michael Frenneaux is BHF Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Birmingham. He qualified in London and has previously held Chairs in Brisbane and Cardiff. Professor Frenneaux is a Clinical Cardiologist whose major interests include heart failure and cardiomyopathies. His research is wide ranging but is best described as integrated physiology. One of his research interests has been the mechanisms responsible for increased cardiovascular risk in individuals with a past history of depression and has focussed on the potential effects of increased Cortisol on the endothelium.
	Professor Marion McMurdo Professor McMurdo is Head of Ageing & Health at the University of Dundee and an Honorary Consultant Physician in Medicine for the Elderly, in NHS Tayside. She is a graduate of Ninewells Hospital & Medical School in Dundee University and was appointed to the newly created chair of Ageing & Health in the University of Dundee in 1997. Professor McMurdo leads a research team which focuses on the effects of physical activity, exercise and nutritional interventions on sarcopenia in older people and has published over 130 peer reviewed papers. She was awarded the Lady Illingworth Prize in 2001, given to the UK clinician considered to have made the greatest contribution to improving quality of life of older people through research.
	Mr Paul Sacher Paul Sacher is founder and Research Director of MEND, an organisation committed to improving the health of families through the development of evidence-based and researched prevention and treatment programmes for childhood obesity. The MEND Programme is the largest child obesity weight management programme, with over 220 sites in the UK, Australia and Denmark. In addition, Paul Sacher is a Senior Research Fellow at the MRC Childhood Nutrition Research Centre at UCL’s Institute of Child Health and an Honorary Specialist Dietitian at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
	Mr Philip Insall Mr Insall joined Sustrans in 1990 from a retail background, and now directs the charity’s International Liaison and Active Travel programmes. He leads Sustrans’ input to policy and official guidance, programme of evidence and best practice communication, and practical physical activity promotion projects UK-wide. Mr Insall contributes to European networks on transport, planning and health, EU policy development, UK programmes such as Foresight and the recent NICE guidance on physical activity and the environment, and strategic partnership such as the National NGO Forum, National Heart Forum, Outdoor Health Forum and others. This year he edited the policy call “Take action on active travel” for 57 national public health and other bodies.
	Mr Adam Brimelow Adam Brimelow has been BBC Radio Health Correspondent for five years. He previously worked as a political reporter and general correspondent for BBC World Service, and on Radio 4's "The World at One" and "PM". He trained on the BBC's local radio reporter scheme, and his early career included spells in Manchester, Birmingham, Wiltshire and Jersey.
	Dr Stephanie Cook Dr Stephanie Cook was educated at the Bedford High School and The Perse School for Girls, Cambridge before reading medicine at Peterhouse, Cambridge and Lincoln College, Oxford. She won the gold medal in modern pentathlon at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and also went on to become both European and World Champion in 2001. She was awarded an MBE for services to modern pentathlon in 2001. She put her medical career on hold for a few years but subsequently resumed her work as a doctor completing her basic surgical training at the Royal United Hospital in Bath and then training as an ENT surgeon in the southwest. She is currently on maternity leave following the birth of her first child last October.
	Dr Mike Stroud Dr Mike Stroud qualified in 1979 and then spent 10 years in a variety of hospital posts interspersed with far reaching expeditions. In 1990, he entered full-time research on endurance, nutrition and survival, working at both the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine and the Army Personnel Research Establishment. He then became the Chief Physiologist at the UK Centre for Human Sciences. In 1995, he returned to hospital medicine in Southampton where in 1998 he was appointed as a Senior Lecturer in Medicine & Nutrition and a Consultant Gastroenterologist. In the expedition and sporting world, Dr Stroud is best known for his record-breaking Polar expeditions with Sir Ranulph Fiennes, long distance runs including the ‘Marathon of the Sands’ (a trans-sahara multi-marathon) and the ‘Eco-Challenge’ adventure races, and the completion of seven marathons in seven days on seven continents.

Programme
09.15 – 10.00 hrs
Registration, refreshments and exhibition viewing

10.00 – 10.05 hrs
Chair: Professor Parveen Kumar, Immediate Past President, British Medical Association & Barts and the London School of Medicine & Dentistry; Honorary Consultant, Barts and the London NHS Trust & Homerton Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

10.05 – 10.20 hrs
Opening address

10.20 – 11.00 hrs
Keynote address: Excellence in health: An evolutionary perspective
Professor S Boyd Eaton, Departments of Radiology & Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta

11.00 – 11.20 hrs
Exercise and the obesity epidemic
Professor Kenneth Fox, Professor of Exercise & Health Sciences, Department of Exercise, Nutrition & Health Sciences, Bristol University

11.20 – 11.40 hrs
Refreshments and exhibition viewing

Chair: Dame Deirdre Hine, Past President, British Medical Association

11.40 - 12.00 hrs
To exercise or not?
Dr Keith Baar, Lecturer of Sports Biomedicine, Division of Molecular Physiology, University of Dundee

12.00 – 12.20 hrs
Children and physical activity: Determinants and psychological outcomes
Dr Gaynor Parfitt, Associate Professor, School of Sport & Health Sciences, University of Exeter

12.20 – 12.45 hrs
Discussion

12.45 – 13.45 hrs
Lunch and exhibition viewing

Chair: Professor Sir Kenneth Calman, President Elect, British Medical Association and Chancellor, University of Glasgow

13.45 – 14.05 hrs
Exercise and depression
Professor Michael Frenneaux, BHF Professor in Cardiology & Head of Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Birmingham

14.05 – 14.30 hrs
Physical activity, health and disability in later life
Professor Marion McMurdo, Head of Ageing & Health, University of Dundee & Honorary Consultant Physician in Medicine for the Elderly, NHS Tayside

14.30 – 14.50 hrs
Refreshments and exhibition viewing

Chair: Professor Parveen Kumar

How do we change the culture/environment and make it easier for people to exercise?
Where do we go from here?

14.50 - 15.10 hrs
Tackling Child Obesity: MEND
Mr Paul Sacher, Research Director, MEND, London

15.10 - 15.30 hrs
Creating the environment for active living through walking and cycling
Mr Philip Insall, Director, Active Travel, Sustrans

15.30 – 16.00 hrs
The Olympic ideal interview
Mr Adam Brimelow, BBC Health Correspondent, will interview:
Dr Stephanie Cook, Olympic Gold Medallist; ENT Specialist Registrar, Gloucestershire Royal Hospital
Dr Mike Stroud, Consultant Physician & Senior Lecturer, University of Southampton

16.00 – 16.30 hrs
Discussion and summing up
Chair: Professor Sir Charles George, Past President, British Medical Association & Chairman, BMA Board of Science & Medical Education

16.30 hrs
Close of conference