It must be noted that all health professionals featured in this segment are Accredited Exercise Physiologists (AEPs). AEPs are 4-year university qualified allied-health professionals who specialise in exercise therapy and lifestyle services for persons with chronic health conditions, injury and disability. There are over 2,600 Accredited Exercise Physiologists (AEPs) nationally - many of whom work in private practice. You can located an AEP in your area by going to the "Find an Exercise Physiologist" search directory at www.essa.org.au. If you have a medical condition, please consult your AEP or doctor before embarking on an exercise program.

The original version of this story contained an error with regard to the percentage of GP consultations prescribing exercise as part of their consultations. This has now been corrected.

NARRATION

Wayne is in his final weeks of chemotherapy for bowel cancer.

Clinical Prof David Goldstein

Chemotherapy as we use it today, is really drugs given to the highest doses that, from experience and testing, people can tolerate.

NARRATION

To combat the severe side-effects of treatment, Wayne takes a range of other medications. But they have limited effect.

Wayne Bell

After starting the chemotherapy, all my energy had gone. I was, I'd get out of bed and lie on the couch and watch movies and read, and really had no energy. And this went on for weeks.

NARRATION

But Wayne's oncologist has prescribed another treatment, fast gaining recognition among cancer specialists. It can fight Wayne's fatigue and nausea, lower his risk of developing secondary diseases, and dramatically cuts the chance of the tumour returning.

Wayne Bell

I feel now much better than I did on the earlier part of the chemotherapy. I really feel that I'm dealing with it much better.

Anja Taylor

It can treat the top ten chronic diseases in Australia. Yet the extraordinary thing is, less than 2per cent of GP consultations involve any mention of it. You might be thinking it's some new miracle drug, but it's not.

NARRATION

It's exercise. We all know exercise is good for us. It makes us feel better, look better, and function better.

Anja Taylor

It took all my energy to get up at six o'clock this morning and go training. And let's face it,

most of us only do it when we're feeling healthy or motivated. How Many of you exercise when you're sick? I know I don't.

NARRATION

Neither did Wayne. Traditionally chemotherapy patients like Wayne were told to avoid physical activity.

Wayne Bell

I walked into the Lifestyle Clinic and I saw some weights there, and I thought, 'Oh no, I can't even look at those weights.' But they, they got me on very light exercises - just walking. And I couldn't believe the, the turnaround. Within a few days I was feeling much better.

NARRATION

The Lifestyle Clinic is no ordinary gym. Every patron here is a patient, being treated for a serious medical condition.

Trainer

That's it, all the way back …

NARRATION

Director Chris Tzar is part of a global campaign to get doctors to see exercise as medicine.

Chris Tzar

There is no medicine that can treat a range of chronic conditions like exercise can. We have many medical practitioners that actually are if you like, exercise therapy naïve, they're not familiar with the role of exercise in a particular chronic disease, and the mechanisms underlying it, and what impact it has as well.

NARRATION

The impact can be huge. Take Margaret. She was diagnosed with high-level diabetes at age seventy-four. Standard medications didn't make a huge improvement to her blood glucose levels.

Margaret

After four years, you know, I didn't get the count down very far.

NARRATION

With nothing to lose, Margaret turned to exercise. She's been pumping iron three times a week.

Anja Taylor

Why strength training?

Chris Tzar

Strength training is an anaerobic activity. It requires muscle contractions, and that's a form of activity that helps to treat diabetes, and primarily insulin resistance, to try and bring down blood glucose levels.

NARRATION

And it's worked phenomenally well. In just eighteen months, exercise has achieved what medication failed to: Margaret's blood glucose levels are now well within the normal range.

Anja Taylor

So Margaret's gone from a high-level diabetic to non-diabetic, essentially, at the age of eighty.

Chris Tzar

Essentially, yeah.

Anja Taylor

That's incredible.

Chris Tzar

It is, and it shows what impact exercise can have if you do it routinely and progressively, and you can commit to it long-term. We find that it has a dose-response relationship. So there's a particular type of exercise, done at a particular frequency, which poses significant benefits for a specific condition.

NARRATION

Exercise works on different conditions in a myriad of ways. It alters the expression of genes, changes hormonal responses, encourages the birth of new brain cells, lowers fat levels, decreases inflammation … the list is endless.

Chris Tzar

You're not just doing exercise to treat your type-two diabetes, but it's also helping to improve your blood pressure, it's helping to improve your cholesterol levels, and tackle depression and other symptoms. Because Many patients don't just present with one disorder, and that's the uniqueness about physical activity and exercise.

Instructor

You okay there? Okay, just ten more seconds.

NARRATION

While the effects of exercise on some conditions like diabetes, osteoporosis and depression are well-known, evidence is still coming in on its wide range of benefits for cancer patients. These men have prostate cancer. The cancer thrives in the presence of testosterone, so treatment involves the suppression of this hormone.

Assoc Prof Daniel Galvao

By withdrawing testosterone, there's a number of side effects, for instance the loss of muscle, the loss of bone. Um, impairments in physical functioning and balance.

NARRATION

Patients on testosterone suppressants normally lose over four per cent of their bone density each year. This trial is examining whether targeted exercise can prevent this loss.

Assoc Prof Daniel Galvao

We've shown in previous studies that exercise is an important role to reverse the loss of muscle. Now we're taking it a step further, we're combining resistance training with high-impact loading activity which is very likely to be beneficial for bone outcomes.

NARRATION

Jumping is not a normal activity for these men. Each time they land, their skeleton vibrates and takes load. Over time, this leads to beneficial changes in the bones.

Anja Taylor

So this person's been on the trial for six months?

Assoc Prof Daniel Galvao

So what we can see here, this particular subject's actually preserving bone over time, which is a fantastic outcome.

Anja Taylor

So that means he hasn't lost any bone at all?

Assoc Prof Daniel Galvao

Exactly.

Instructor

Difficult, isn't it?

Man

Oh, I reckon.

Instructor

Try and get your balance back.

NARRATION

Balance exercises lead to less falls and less fractures.

Instructor

If you have a look at the grey bar there

Man

Oh, I see, yeah.

Instructor

that's the average for someone your age. And so you're well above that.

NARRATION

Cardiovascular fitness lowers other risk factors. But best of all, exercise may even beat the cancer itself. Large epidemiological studies suggest the right amount of exercise can achieve a drop in mortality of around fifty to sixty per cent for a number of cancers.

Clinical Prof David Goldstein

Exercise is the only treatment I know of that can achieve this kind of result without any downside. And in a sense, it's a rediscovery of something that's always been beneficial.

Wayne Bell

The idea that exercise will stop the tumour coming back, it makes me want to exercise more, and anything I can do to stop that tumour coming back is great.

Assoc Prof Daniel Galvao

It means that patients have extended their lives, in terms of time. So it's a fantastic outcome, it's very exciting for this area.

NARRATION

To encourage more GPs to prescribe exercise, the Lifestyle Clinic has developed a special patient questionnaire. Expect your physical activity levels to be under scrutiny at one of your next check-ups.

Anja Taylor

Surprisingly, the results from my questionnaire tell me I have to exercise more. But the upside is, at least I'll be working on prevention, rather than cure.