Signing a Health Contract - Essay Example

Health Contract In this new age of technology, innovation and information, we are given the greater advantage for comfort. This is also brought about by man’s longing to continue to make life easier. Because of this, most of us tend to just relax and get carried away by the fascination of just watching the world go around in the television or computers. Everything becomes handy and easy. We all just wait for the growing of our tummies and the bulging of our flabby bodies. The goal of this essay is mainly to portray how we can continue to savor comfort by not forgetting the basic of exercise that is to maintain a healthy body, and a healthy life. The experiment I’m about to present is more of giving or allotting extra time in my day-to-day’s activity to perform a 30-minute exercise to improve not just my cardiovascular fitness but my body’s fitness as a whole. It all started when I and my daughter had a little 50-meter run in the village a few weeks ago. I noticed that I easily get tired. That little race which my daughter and I had made me think on what I had become in the past years after I recovered from my operations due to an accident. That was in 1993. The recovery was slow but I managed to get well. After that, I just stayed in the comfort of my house and the office. Home to office and office to home became my routine. I didn’t have a place for exercise. Although I tried to walk from work or even walk the dog sometimes, yet I know it’s not enough. I also tried to do gardening but that was just for a short time. To make it short, there was no extensive effort made for my part to pull at least 30 minutes everyday to do physical exercise. That was a big mistake. I then decided to get some help from a health expert. He advised me to do exercise under a 6-week program. The start like any other was quite difficult. I went on from jogging to biking, then to a 10-minute skipping rope at 3 times a day. As I expected, discipline became a big problem along with time management. I had a hard time putting exercise into my weekly schedule until the 30-minute exercise a day, at one pint became just a 2-time exercise a week. This went on until the second week. Finally, on the third week of the program, I got more preoccupied with dealing on the injury that I had because of an accident caused by snow. Other than that, I also had to attend to my wife at a hospital which really stopped me from the original plan of doing a 30-minute exercise everyday. For many years now, there had been several claims and even proofs that for those people with cardiovascular problems like me, physical exercise is needed. But before finally proceeding to these claims of goodness from physical exercise, we can try to look at first the meaning of cardiovascular disease. When we talk of cardiovascular disease, it refers to the different ailments associated with the blood vessels and the heart. Some of the common forms of cardiovascular disease are stroke and hypertension. In this kind of disease, the problem is with the narrowing or blocking of the arteries, specifically the coronary arteries. We say there is a heart attack when the blood flow going to the myocardium is not well. It is said to be life threatening when this obstruction gets to cover a big part of the myocardium or the flow is stopped to a great degree. The damage may not be just in the heart but also in the brain. It can block blood vessels from the brain or can cause internal bleeding. And speaking of high blood pressure, or the common cardiovascular disease of the baby boomers or the generation X, there is an increase in the pumping of the heart where it destroys arterial wall which can cause arteries to give in and damage the brain (Morris 2003). In the book written by Jeremy Morris (2003) entitled “Physical Activity and Health,” he gave a data coming from the British Heart Foundation stating that cardiovascular disease is the third cause of global deaths. This means that one out of three people in the UK die either because of cardiovascular disease or chronic heart disease stroke. “Whilst the highest death rates are evident in affluent Western countries, the incidence is rising rapidly in developing countries; in 1999, 78% of CVD deaths were in low and middle-income countries. Whilst death rates worldwide are much lower among women than among men, chronic heart disease is not a trivial problem in women; for instance, twice as many women die from heart and circulatory disease as they do from cancer. Stroke and hypertension also have high prevalence. Stroke accounts for about 10% of all deaths worldwide; and a substantial minority of Western populations have hypertension. In the UK, for example, more than 40% of men and more than 30% of women have hypertension (Morris 2003, page 57).” Chronic disease on the other hand is another problem that can somehow be resolved through exercise. The article entitled “Preventing Chronic Diseases: A Vital Investment,” from UN Chronicle. Volume: 43. Issue: 1, people were advised to refrain from unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and use of tobacco. Same issue touched on the current situation where most people are into, the comfort of their work and lifestyle which basically leads them to lesser physical movements. Suggestion like living a healthy life was also given to remedy the problem. Information listed below is one of the main facts that relate to working towards healthy living and exercise. The list is still taken from the same magazine, the UN chronicle. * Chronic disease is responsible for 60% of all deaths worldwide. * 80% of chronic disease deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. * Almost half of chronic disease deaths occur in people under the age of 70. * Chronic diseases affect women and men around the world almost equally. * Unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and tobacco use are the major risk factors. * Without action, 17 million people will die prematurely within the year from chronic disease. * One billion adults are overweight and without action this figure will surpass 1.5 billion by 2015. * 22 million children under five years old are overweight. * Tobacco use causes at least 5 million deaths each year. * If the major risk factors were eliminated, at least 80% of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes, as well as 40% of cancer, would be prevented. Above are just simple definitions of the present challenge that I am facing. Now that I have finished defining what is cardiovascular disease or chronic disease, perhaps, it is time to embrace and understand my goal which is cardiovascular fitness. I may have failed with the 6-week exercise program, yet what is important is to know exactly how I could have succeeded in the goal that I hoped to reach. On the other hand, there is no doubt that the main driving force for my exercise and my health contract is basically the feeling of being healthy plus the assurance that a stroke or heart attack will not happen. In addition to that, it is also good to think that with proper health, you can still eat the food that you want better than those people with afflicted heart illness. The exercise that I chose can be classified as one of the moderate intensity exercises which according to Morrison (2003) is an effective exercise because it brings about a more favorable health outcome. Speed of walking that is moderate is also said to be effective to middle-aged people. According to studies, moderate intensity is good to improve fitness as well as the status of previously sedentary people. This means that moderate exercise is good in reducing blood pressure as it improves metabolic fitness. Moderate is also recommended compared to vigorous because the danger in physical movements is more associated with intensity than frequency. There is also a worldwide experience on the difficulty of altering proportion for people doing the vigorous exercise. In addition to this, there is a principle (as mentioned still by Morris, 2003) regarding multiple short periods of activity that can also help an individual. This is because what is important is the total amount of activity and not on how long the exercise is done. This is in connection to the result of the epidemiological studies that has positive outcome, most of which are done at different time and not on a one-sitting basis. Examples of these are walking from work to home (which I already did), climbing stairs and doing household chores. Morris added that although they might be few data to prove the assumption that such activities are done in separate time, at least there is one report from Harvard Alumni study that can provide reliable evidence. It was between 1988 and 1993 when some participants were called to report on the effect of the activities made intermittently. As expected, researchers claimed that longer sessions were no different from the short ones. This is considering that the total energy spent was the same. This idea then can lead us once again to my goal, my program of improving my cardiovascular fitness through a 30-minute exercise everyday. Since I was not able to complete the 6-month challenge, I should have at least created other activities that would involve exerting energy, at the very least in the office because the basis her is the total or accumulated exercise which means, I don’t have to go to the gym and do the task that was given to me. But then again, discipline to do additional energy-spending activity is the main point. Like what was mentioned above, walking and doing household chores can do the trick and lounging around is a big no. Morris (2003) in the same book (discussed a while ago) he wrote, also mentioned that an activity doesn’t have to become a training of some sort because what is important is for a person to be physically active on a daily basis. He gave another sample study done by doing short sessions of brisk walking where energy spent accumulated through the day. What was measured in the 10 middle-aged and overweight people was the amount of Plasma triglycerides. That was also done on three separate days not ignoring their daily meals. At one point, subjects were asked to sit down all day and the next part was to ask them to walk for thirty minutes. The last test was to walk for ten minutes before a meal. In short, the brisk walking of the subjects reduced triglycerides by the same amount. This can lead us to thinking that continuous activities are not the only one that works but also the short accumulated activities as well. In my case, I know I’m determined and for my part, the only thing that hindered my success on the program is the unexpected circumstances that came along with my serious intention to do a 30-minute aerobics. And since I have mentioned my own driving force for doing the 6-week exercise, I would also like to point out the line I read from Gunnar Erikssen (2001), a Norweigian Epidemiologist who said “…modern day humans are dying because of a lack of physical exercise.” That is something that can be related to all of us since we are the ones living in the modern world. This idea is also one of the driving forces why I had to be more than just a couch-potato, the fear of dying young. Let me give another line from Morris’ book which I’ve been mentioning all throughout this article. This is a simple message that would simply say that the program that consists 6 weeks of 30-min exercise is just worth it and needs to be continued (even if I failed for the first time). “One such study was that of US railroad industry employees. This study examined mortality rates over a 2-year period (1955-56) and found lower rates among section men (classified as the most active group) compared to clerks (classified as the least active group) and switchmen. However, there were limitations to these early studies. It was possible, for example, that the relationship between occupation and mortality risk was simply due to self-selection, that is, men who were in the process of developing chronic diseases (and therefore likely to die prematurely) might have chosen physically less demanding jobs. Also, other characteristics predictive of mortality, such as smoking, obesity and diet, were not accounted for. Moreover, leisure-time physical activity was not measured and thus there was no clear assessment of total physical activity. Nevertheless, such studies were the catalyst for future investigations with improved study designs (Morris 2003, page 37).” Now my program as a whole, can be said to be very significant because it put me in that thinking that I can always do something to better my life physically. Also, another good thing about this health contract is that I was able to realize that in real life, man’s enemy is himself. And if I am going to give the same program to somebody, perhaps I would suggest that every time the person does the 30-minute exercise, he also has to look at an obese person who just sits on the chair, giving up to the idea of hope to getting a fit body. The point here is more than just comparison. The point here is that each of us can control some factors that affect mortality and factors that can affect our performance. We can control our lives like we can control the oil from our faces. We just need to have the guts to start and begin with discipline and the drive to live a healthy and better life. SOURCES UN Chronicle. Vol. 43. 2006. Preventing Chronic Diseases: A Vital Investment. Issue 1. Page Number 72 Bradford, R., 1997. Children, Families, and Chronic Disease: Psychological Models and Methods of Care. London. Routledge. Erikssen, G., Erikssen, J. Reidar., M., Rodahl, K., Sandvik, L., Thaulow, E. 1993. Physical Fitness as a Predictor of Mortality among Healthy, Middle-Aged Norweigian Men, (online) (8) Available from: https://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/328/8/533 (cited August 24, 2007) Erikssen G, Liestol K, Bjornholt J, et al. 1998. Changes in Physical Fitness and Changes in Mortality. Lancet. FDA Consumer. Vol. 37. 2003. Moderate Physical Activity May Reduce Chronic Disease Risk in Older Women. Issue 2. Page number 7. Janssen, I., Joliffe, C. 2006. Influence of Physical Activity on Mortality in Elderly With Coronary Artery Disease. (online) Available from : https://www.medscape.com/reviewarticle/528659 (cited August 24, 2007) Mayo clinic.com.Tools for healthier lives. Available at: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fitness/HQ00171 Morris, J., Physical Activity and Health. 2003. New York. Routledge. UN Chronicle. Vol. 43. 2006. Preventing Chronic Diseases: A Vital Investment. Issue 1. Page Number 72 US Public Health Service. 1996. Physical Activity and Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Read More