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Endocrinologist encourages prevention in classroom, on web
Power of Prevention campaign goes across the country and on the internet.
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Endocrinologist Donald A. Bergman, MD, has taken his practice to the classroom.
Since 2003, as part of the Power of Prevention program, Bergman and collaborating endocrinologists have visited classrooms throughout the United States to teach students about the endocrine system, metabolism, exercise and nutrition — essentially a crash course on how the body works.
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Power of Prevention was developed by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and American College of Endocrinology with the mission to prevent endocrine diseases such as diabetes, obesity and osteoporosis by generating awareness through school visits, an interactive website and preventive publications.
Bergman, a clinical professor of medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, has been involved with Power of Prevention since its inception.
“Today, prevention is a buzz word — everyone is talking about prevention. But in 2003 (when I was president of AACE) this was absolutely not the case. Nobody was paying for prevention or thinking about how to identify people at risk. Either you were healthy or you were sick — there was no transition between the two states,” Bergman told Endocrine Today.
“But with the understanding that evidence was emerging that we could prevent illnesses such as hip fractures, diabetes and complications of obesity, Power of Prevention was born,” said the Endocrine Today editorial board member.
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Source: D. Bergman |
Prevention in the classroom
“Our program is written and run by endocrinologists. I would like to think that endocrinologists are best qualified to talk about prevention because we really are the original preventionalists. Prevention means staying healthy and staying healthy means understanding how the body works,” Bergman said.
AACE endocrinologists volunteer to visit U.S. classrooms where they incorporate PowerPoint presentations and provide teachers with lesson plans on the importance of awareness and prevention of endocrine disorders.
The classroom visits focus primarily on sixth-grade students because “it seems to be a reasonable age when kids are old enough to talk to but aren’t quite teenagers yet,” Bergman said.
“I am very old fashioned. I think there is something to be said for looking someone in the eye. That’s why the school visits are our centerpiece,” he said.
In addition, AACE and Power of Prevention partnered with the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports to promote physical fitness in schools through the distribution of fake exercise prescriptions (eg, walk for 30 minutes three to five times per week) and pedometers to track the students’ steps.
Last year was the most successful year — nearly 70,000 pedometers were handed out, according to Bergman.
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Source: D. Bergman |
Prevention on the web
A cornerstone of the Power of Prevention campaign is its interactive website. With the click of a mouse, visitors can learn about the diagnosis, treatment and management of endocrine disorders including oft- unknown disorders like parathyroidism and thyroid cancer. There are also links for adults and children to calculate their BMI, the opportunity to participate in the Power of Prevention Challenge by tracking their physical activity progress online and program materials that teachers can download to incorporate into their curriculum.
“By and large, the website is for adults as well as children and is filled with useful information. We have a constant readership every year, whether it is people visiting the site for the first time or repeat visitors,” said Bergman, who uses the website in his daily practice.
Individual feedback has been positive, according to Bergman.
“When I was a kid we communicated on the telephone or wrote letters. Now, the main method of communication is presence on the internet. This is the language of the 21st century; this is how people prefer to communicate,” he said.
The success of Power of Prevention for kids has fueled a new focus for 2009: adults. Power of Prevention will be the umbrella organization for all endocrine and metabolic awareness programs for AACE and ACE. Several projects and initiatives are on the horizon, including one for diabetes and another for hypertension, and the Power of Prevention magazine, which will be distributed to endocrinologists for their patients. – by Katie Kalvaitis
For more information:
- For more information on Power of Prevention, visit powerofprevention.com.