A GP and former rugby professional has dramatically improved his patients’ health and well-being, and saved money, by prescribing walking, reports. A Manchester University audit of Dr John Morgan’s practice in Wigan has revealed that of the patients who joined his walking group, 29% were able to give up anti-depressants and 92.5% reported improvements in mood. Almost all had reduced blood pressure, and two-thirds had lost weight. (The Daily Telegraph)

This is very alarming. Are not human beings designed to take pills for everything from obesity to moodiness? How will my erstwhile employer, a Big Pharma member, make an honest dollar? If doctors stop writing traditional prescriptions think of the loss of jobs! All those salesmen who call on doctors, distributing free samples; and the nurses who take your blood pressure every time you venture to the surgery. And what will happen to research? Do they realize that walking wears out the hip and knee joints? And that doing it along busy roads is dangerous to the health. We’ll have to stop this doctor in Wigan. He is a menace to the health of the economy.