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GENERAL PRACTITIONER'S SECTION
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY MOVES LIFE TOWARDS HEALTH
DEEPA H VELANKAR
30 minutes of regular moderate physical activity everyday is one of the easiest way to improve and maintain health. It can control non-communicable and mental diseases. “Simply moving” is a right move towards positive health.
INTRODUCTION
The lack of physical activity is a major underlying cause of death, disease and disability. Preliminary data from a WHO study on risk factors suggest that inactivity or sedentary lifestyle is one of the 101 leading global causes of death and disability. More than two million deaths each year are attributable to physical inactivity. In countries around the world between 60% and 80% of adults are simply not active enough o benefit their health.
Harmful Effects of Sedentary Lifestyles
Sedentary lifestyles increase all causes of mortality, double the risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and obesity, substantially increase risks of colon cancer, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, depression and anxiety. The above mentioned conditions are on the risk and will have an increasingly severe effect on health care systems, resources and economies in countries around the world. Both developed and developing countries already struggling to manage the impact of infectious diseases and other development challenges will be forced to spend their meager resources dealing with non-communicable diseases.Confounding Factors of Sedentary Lifestyles
a) At individual or community level
Insufficient knowledge
Lack of education
Stressful living conditions
Fast life
Wrong attitudes
False practices
b) At the political level
Overcrowding
Poverty
Crime
Traffic
Poor quality of air
Lack of parks and gardens
Dug up sidewalks
Lack of sports and recreation facilities
Lack of safe areas and play ground
Budget restrains
Importance of Physical Activity for Health
Regular moderate physical activity is one of the easiest ways to improve and maintain your health. It has the potential to prevent and control certain diseases such as, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, diabetes and osteoporosis. Being physically active increases your energy levels, helps to reduce stress and lowers unhealthy levels of cholesterol and blood pressure. It also lowers your risk of cancers, especially colon cancer. Regular active play promotes healthy growth and development in children and young people. It increases confidence, self-esteem and feeling of achievement. Older adults benefit from both, life long habits or newly learned routines of physical activity. It is important for healthy aging, improving and maintaining quality of life and independence. Daily physical activity helps with disabilities by improving mobility and increasing energy levels. It can also prevent or reduce certain disabilities.
What can be done?
Most non-communicable diseases are preventable. Government and community action can save lives and livelihoods. Getting physically active is an important step in moving for health. However physical inactivity is not merely the result of an individual’s lifestyle. Government policies and programmes can have a great impact on people’s ability to influence their own health. In order to promote physical activity, a community should prioritize and develop parks and open spaces, clean air and water, safe and attractive streets and vibrant public life. This requires the commitment, action and co-operation of health sector as well as other sectors like transport, environment, urban planning and law enforcement.
What can an individual do?
Any amount of physical activity i.e. “any body movement that results in an expenditure of energy (burning calories) simply put moving” will make you feel better.
The minimum amount of physical activity required for the prevention of disease is about 30 minutes of moderate activity everyday i.e. about 150 calories per day. However you can move for health without calculating calories. The formula is simple, at least half an hour of moderate physical activityover the course of each day.
This means:
1. Getting out of the bus two stops early on way to work, for a 20 minutes walk and one stop early on the way home for another minutes of walking.
2. Ten minutes of cleaning house twice a day ten minutes of cycling.
3. A 30 minutes basketball game or a dance your brothers, sisters, friends or children.
4. Taking staircase instead of elevator (at least going down).
5. Simple stretching exercises while seated your desk, standing at your post or talking phone.
6. Walk, run or bike to places where you might have to take a car or bus otherwise.
7. Wash windows, paint walls, vacuum or sweep, rake the yard or cut the grass, walk the dog.
8. Rope skipping, stepping, riding a stationary bicycle or sit ups while watching television.
9. Classical or folk or modern dance.
10. Aerobics and gymnasium.
11. Active sports like Swimming, Badminton, Tennis etc.
CONCLUSION
30 minutes of physical activity is the minimum recommendation for healthy life, but more the you spend moving for health, the more you gain. most important thing is to move!
REFERENCES
1. Public health department IEC cell PMMP 2000.
2. WHO world health report 1999.
