Janice Latschislaw walks five kilometres a day, five times a week at the Reh-Fit Centre.

It’s a routine she started four years ago after getting diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.

"It takes an hour of your day and it makes you feel better,” said Latschislaw.

Hitting the gym also helped her lose 70 pounds and she no longer needs as much medication to regulate her condition.

“I feel really good. I don't feel sluggish. I can run upstairs. I can play with my grandchildren," she said.

All the more reason exercise physiologist Dr. Jonathon Fowles from Halifax wants to see more doctors actually prescribe exercise for their patients.

"We know just telling people to be active or telling people to exercise doesn't really work,” said Dr. Fowles, director of Acadia University’s Centre for Lifestyle Studies. “They need a plan. They need a prescription possibly from their doctor."

Dr. Fowles came to Winnipeg to train physicians on how to prescribe basic exercise for patients to prevent, manage and treat chronic disease.

That could include showing patients what exercise to do for how long, and at what intensity. It could also mean helping people set goals or setting up patients with exercise professionals.

"We're now seeing it's a very powerful therapeutic agent when applied in the right way, in the right dose."

While the idea of prescribing exercise is relatively new to Canada, Dr. Fowles said other countries are doing it and there's proof it's making a difference.

"There's evidence from Australia and New Zealand that when physicians actually start writing prescriptions, it increases the physical activity level of the community they practice in by increasing it by about 10 per cent," said Fowles.

Janice Latschislaw hopes the idea catches on in Canada. She said her story is also proof exercise as medicine works.