Panelists
Julie Foucher, MD – Family Physician
Pat Sherwood – CrossFit Linchpin Owner
Athena Perez – Scaled Nation CrossFit Owner
Nick Nwabueze, MD – SteadyMD Physician
Tom McCoy, DO – Vital Human Medical Director
“It’s really cool if you get the beast in your gym who already has a 475-lb. deadlift and now it’s 505. Fantastic. You get a senior citizen who — they were contemplating selling their house because it had stairs, and now they don’t have to sell their home. … so much cooler and more rewarding and fulfilling,” Pat Sherwood says, highlighting some of the biggest rewards of CrossFit during a panel discussion on CrossFit and chronic disease.
The panel was part of a series of discussions hosted by CrossFit Health at the 2021 NOBULL CrossFit Games, with Dr. Julie Foucher moderating.
Family physician Dr. Nick Nwabueze agrees that while we all love the spectacle of the CrossFit Games, the real power is in getting the word out that CrossFit is a solution for problems that plague people daily — treating metabolic dysfunction, lowering blood pressure, and improving overall health.
In this discussion, healthcare practitioners and affiliate owners discuss limitations of the conventional healthcare system, the power of the CrossFit affiliate to transform health, and how we can make CrossFit more approachable to a broader population.
Comments on CrossFit Health Panel: Chronic Disease
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If you look at the "health care" system as an economic entity, it makes perfect sense. Bad sense, but perfect. In economic terms, a physician is a production unit, and the 10-minute time slots are revenue units. Spend more time with a patient but don't get more revenue, and the physician, or her practice, is out of business. Absent a systemic change to the economic incentives, we will be the definition of crazy with ever-worsening outcomes. The only way that has worked is single-payer. It is not perfect, but among the other 29 developed countries, their health care costs less and has equal or better outcomes.
It isn't complicated. It is (mostly) not an ethical failure. It is rudimentary economics.
The payment system is a huge problem, but it can be changed to incentivize health over procedural treatments and the prescription of drugs. From my experience, I’ve never ran into a doc who truly understands and works on the holistic level of nutrition and (especially) movement. I’m trying out a new Osteopath tomorrow, as the DO track sounds more health focused than the MD track.
CrossFit Health Panel: Chronic Disease
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