Photo courtesy of Nancy Gates.
It can be hard to convert what a doctor tells us into action.
Twenty years ago, cardiologist Dr. David Sabgir became so frustrated over his inability to change his patients’ lifestyles that he tried a new tactic—inviting them for a walk in a local park one spring Saturday.
Out of that first walk was born the nationwide program, “Walk with a Doc,” which now has more than 500 chapters worldwide.
In 2021, Dauphin County Parks & Recreation teamed up with Susquehanna Township and Penbrook to bring the walks here as part of the Park Rx series of programs on health and wellness. They also work together with the Capital Area Greenbelt Association, Penn State Health and with sponsor Highmark Blue Shield.
The monthly walks have taken off with 15 to 25-plus participants joining local doctors from Penn State Health and other clinics for brief, topic-driven presentations followed by a two-mile walk on a local trail, when walkers can ask the doctors anything about the presentation or other medical issues.
After a winter break, the walks re-start this month, taking place monthly at such area parks as 5 Senses Garden, Penbrook Park and Wildwood Park. The March 25 event is at City Island. All weekday walks are held from 6 to 7 p.m. and Saturday events from 10 to 11 a.m. Topics include nutrition, trauma care, women’s health, outdoor first aid, skin cancer prevention and more.
All participants are asked to register with the parks so they can plan and communicate about bad weather or schedule changes. Walks are appropriate for people of all ages, and participants can ask questions of the doctors during and after the walks.
“We try to make it as ability friendly as we can make it,” said Doug Knauss, parks and recreation director for Susquehanna Township. “If someone is not a walker, it will be on a route and path they are comfortable with that’s relatively flat and not too difficult for people to take part in.”
Dr. Cayce Onks, a primary care sports medicine physician for Penn State Health, has participated every year. The first year, he presented on the benefits of physical activity, then practiced what he preached on the hike that followed. The next year, he discussed heat illness and exercise—appropriately on a hot, humid July day. Last year, he discussed the benefit of exercise in the treatment and prevention of cancer.
“The reason I got involved was because of the overwhelming benefits of physical activity for all systems,” Onks said. “There’s no single modifier of health that has such a profound effect on the whole body as exercise.”
Onks stressed the issues that motivated Sabgir to start the program, noting that 70% of Americans aren’t meeting national exercise guidelines.
“That’s the area I’m most interested in—implementation,” he said. “How do I get a patient to go for a walk?”
Robust Effects
Dauphin County offers other programming, including those based around wellness and the outdoors, yoga at the river, meditation, art programs, plant programs, forest bathing and more. A volunteer-led weekly walk at Wildwood at 1 p.m. on Wednesdays attracts many people who want to walk, but don’t want to walk alone, said Nancy Gates, Dauphin County Parks & Recreation assistant program manager.
Dr. Matt Silvis, chair of family medicine and a sports medicine physician at Penn State Health, dove into detail about forest bathing on his last Walk with a Doc. This topic might conjure images of jumping into cold streams, but, in fact, is merely walking in an outdoor area, forest or field and engaging with nature like a toddler might.
“It is slow walking and meandering and really engaging all of your senses, taking time to listen, smell, touch,” Silvis said. “It has significant health benefits and falls into meditation categories for restorative health.”
Silvis said walkers first asked questions about forest bathing, but then asked “every question imaginable.” Everyone on the walk interacted, he said.
Another physician, Dr. Everett Hills a physical medicine and rehabilitation practitioner, encourages participants not only to stay mobile, but to note their walking speed, saying that increasing evidence shows that how fast someone walks can be a predictor of how fast they age and may signal the need to see a doctor.
“Walking is such a vital activity,” he said. “Just maintaining an active lifestyle and walking doesn’t require anything more special than a good pair of shoes and the willingness to get out there whether rain or shine, night or day.”
He describes regular walking as highly productive.
“On a bad day, a walk helps clear it out—burns off excess energy, gives you redirection, has cardio and pulmonary benefits, and keeps limbs active and limber,” Hill said.
Parks, Onks noted, offer a safe environment for people to exercise in an outdoor setting, all of which has health benefits.
“Being outside, being in the wilderness is shown to be helpful for stress and anxiety. Just being in wilderness itself is a positive thing,” he said. “Add a little bit of physical activity to it, and it has robust effects.”
For a schedule of the Walk with a Doc program, visit www.DauphinCounty.gov/parks. For more about the national program, visit www.walkwithadoc.org.
If you like what we do, please support our work. Become a Friend of TheBurg!
