Vitality Active Rewards for Doctors feeds Dr Malin's lifestyle

"I'm convinced of the stress-reduction benefits of Vitality Active Rewards for Doctors," he says. "Caring for people's eyes, particularly in cases of advanced eye disease, is sometimes very stressful," he explains. "Exercise and diet keep my mind clear and my brain fog-free," he adds.

Dr Larry Malin easily reaches his 900 Vitality weekly point target set for him by Vitality Active Rewards for Doctors. He does this by cycling, running and/or going to gym, (depending on his patient load or the weather).

"I've reached the maximum points target for 41 consecutive weeks and want to extend that," he says. On days when he least feels like exercising he heads out anyway. "I check in and see how I feels after five minutes and usually keep going," says the husband and father of three grown children. "On the day of exercise your whole attitude and view point can change for the better, it's amazing."

The Vitality Active Rewards for Doctors programme is fit for this athlete, adding motivation to a regime that sees him in the top five percent for his age group in cycle races. His patient philosophy is simple; "I know the take-up on changing lifestyle is slow but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. He recommends the Vitality Active Rewards for Doctors programme to colleagues - and several have taken him up on it.

Dr Malin's health and fitness get his patients motivated

He's lean and fit, so his patients get the message when he talks about healthcare. "I believe that broadly-speaking, patients have more control over their health than their doctors and hugely underestimate their potential contribution to their own health. Consider diabetes - a common cause of blindness and macular degeneration. We can treat the eye once damaged, but they can prevent the damage in the first place!"

One of the best-known preventatives for macular degeneration and diabetes is eating leafy green vegetables, exercise and controlling sugar intake. A fan of green smoothies, he leaves his favourite juicing recipes with his secretary to hand out to interested patients to try. Larry talks a lot to patients about genetic predisposition and the way in which one's lifestyle affects genetic expression - the science of Epigenetics.

"You can change the expression of your genes through a healthy lifestyle. If you have a genetic disease predisposition you can actually change whether those genes express or not. There's no inevitability," he adds. "If you have a gene causing damage, you can switch it off, or switch on ones that mitigate damage." He also practices yoga and Pilates. "I can do things now that I couldn't do when I was 25-years-old," he says. Larry wears a Garmin watch to track his training overall and also has a Garmin device specific for tracking his cycling.

"I'm convinced of the stress-reduction benefits of Vitality Active Rewards for Doctors," he says. "Caring for people's eyes, particularly in cases of advanced eye disease, is sometimes very stressful," he explains. "Exercise and diet keep my mind clear and my brain fog-free," he adds.