Exercise prescribed for preventive care

"This shifts the focus from treating illness to preventing it, enabling people to receive scientific exercise guidance right in their own neighborhoods, so they get sick less often or not at all," he added.

In April last year, Tianjin Hospital, together with the Tianjin Sports Bureau and the Tianjin Health Commission, established the Tianjin Sports Medicine Center, the first provincial-level sports medicine center in China.

Xu said the center's establishment was built on two decades of clinical experience and a response to profound social changes. Today, the aging population is accelerating, leading to more fractures; adolescents are increasingly sedentary, while obesity is on the rise; at the same time, more people are exercising for fitness, and competitive athletes are sustaining more injuries.

"All these social trends are placing greater demands on sports injury treatment and rehabilitation," Xu said.

Professor Cao said that years ago, when high-level Chinese athletes were injured, they often had to travel abroad for treatment, and some even had to cut short their careers as a result.

In recent years, however, the sports medicine team at Tianjin Hospital has successfully performed surgeries on multiple Olympic and Asian Games medalists, helping them return to competition. Even foreign professional players have come to the hospital for surgery.

"With the nationwide popularization of fitness-for-all activities, the incidence of sports injuries is also on the rise. The core issue is insufficient awareness and measures for injury prevention," Cao said. "We recommend warming up thoroughly before exercise, mastering proper techniques, avoiding exercise when fatigued, and choosing sports that suit one's age, physical condition and interests. This is how we can effectively prevent sports injuries and truly achieve scientific fitness."

Xu said the sports medicine center will continue to focus on three areas of precision treatment of sports injuries, prevention and rehabilitation of sports injuries, and the distinctive Chinese approach of integrating traditional Chinese and Western medicine in sports medicine.

For the Party secretary, the ultimate goal of medicine is to extend healthy, active life spans. "We need to help people exercise scientifically, so they suffer fewer injuries, or none at all. Only then can we truly improve their quality of life," he said.

Jia Yunge and Zhong Aiyamei contributed to this story.

yandongjie@chinadaily.com.cn