The Significance of Regular Exercise in the Maintenance of a Healthy Mind and Body - Term Paper Example

The significance of Regular Exercise in the Maintenance of a Healthy Mind and Body; and the Extent to which the Plays a role in ensuring that its Citizens Exercise Regularly Name: University: Course: Tutor: Date: The significance of Regular Exercise in the Maintenance of a Healthy Mind and Body; and the Extent to which the State Plays a role in ensuring that its Citizens Exercise Regularly Introduction For a person to be both healthy and energetic, it is important to constantly maintain an active lifestyle, engage in regular exercise as well as other physical activities. Since ancient times physical fitness and physical activity have been closely linked with longevity and health; however according to Hardman and Stensel (2009) it was the early fourth century and fifth century BC Greek physicians who were able to successfully establish a tradition of maintaining positive health via the use of a regimen consisting of a combination of exercise and correct eating. NHS (2013) points out that people who engage in regular activity tend to have a greatly reduced risk of developing many of the various chronic diseases such as type II diabetes, some types of cancer, heart disease and even stroke. Although the benefits of exercise are relatively well known in the modern world, it is unfortunate that people tend to be less active as a result of the rather increased use of technology that has caused our lives to become easier. People are nowadays generally less active as compared to a few decades ago when it was necessary to engage in menial physical activity on nearly a daily basis. Relatively very few numbers of people regularly engage in doing manual work and most jobs can be noted as involving very little physical effort. The burden of leading a healthy lifestyles and encouraging others to do so as well should not only be borne by the concerned individuals, but he government as well (c3 Collaborating for Health (2011). Engaging in physical exercise has been linked to a number of benefits some of the physical benefits of regular exercise include the fact that regular exercise helps in protecting an individuals from developing undesirable blood lipid patterns and high blood pressure which can eventually develop into strokes (NHS, 2013). By strengthening heart muscles, lowering bad cholesterol, increasing good cholesterol, enhancing blood flow and lowering the blood pressure, exercise is seen to help in greatly reducing the risk of heart diseases in individuals. Regular physical exercise has also been linked to helping protect against type II diabetes by enhancing weight loss, increasing an individual’s insulin sensitivity as well as improving the cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Cancers such as breast and colon cancers can also be effectively prevented by engaging in regular exercise. Physical exercise can also help individuals in either the prevention of excessive weight gain or in maintaining their weight loss. When people engage in physical activities, they are able to burn calories, the more intense the activity they are engaging in, the more the calories they are able to burn. Physical activity increases muscle mass and reduces body fat. It is important to effectively control obesity as it is a key risk-factor for a number of diseases. Using physical exercise to lower the body mass index (BMI) greatly helps in reducing an individual’s risk of dying early and can help in ensuring that people are able to live a healthier life. Regular physical activity can also help in keeping an individual’s learning, judgment and thinking skills sharp. It can also help in reducing the risk of depression and may also help a person in obtaining better sleep. It is imperative that persons ensure that they lead lifestyles found to be both active and healthy; this is in addition to exercising regularly to ensure that they fully reap the benefits of physical activity (NHS, 2013). According to the Department of Health and Human Services, it is very important for individuals to ensure that they take personal responsibility and have active lives in addition to doing regular exercises (Department of Health and Human services). Leading a healthy lifestyle is for an individual’s very own benefit as they will be able to maintain the positive health benefits that are commonly associated with the lifestyle such as preventing disease, reducing healthcare costs as well as improving the quality of their lives. Regular exercise has the effect of causing people to become more happy and productive. This is because it has the benefit of reversing the effects of stress and depressing that can often sap at an individual’s happiness and result in an overall reduction in productivity levels. According to Grant (2006) By taking increased personal responsibility and endeavoring to have a more active lives, individuals can also benefit from increased social activity as a number of physical activities and sports often tend to require that people play or participate in groups. The increased social activity in turn helps in improving mental health of these individuals as they interact and engage with other people. Another key reason as to why individuals should take personal responsibility and engage in regular exercise while leading active lives is that by doing this, they will be able to avoid a large number of chronic health conditions and the expenses associated with their treatment; the treatment of some of these health conditions such as cancer can at times be very expensive and in the event that these individual do not have sufficient medical cover, they might find it to be quite expensive or even impossible for them to obtain the necessary treatment or medication. There are numerous financial and personal benefits that can accrue to an individual as a result of leading an active life and it is as a because of this that it should be encouraged for people to take personal responsibility for this (Grant 2006). The government is seen to have a crucial role in the persuasion of people and encouraging them to lead active lives (Manfoud 2012). Although a recent report by the department of healthy indicates that approximately over half of the country’s population currently does the recommended amount of physical activity, it is rather quite worrying that over a quarter of the country’s adult population does not even do 30 minutes of physical activity in a week which is a factor that is seen to greatly put their health at great risk. According to Public Health Minister Anna Soubry, only an approximate quarter of girls and about a third of the boys are able to actually meet the recommended average of about 60 minutes of physical activity per day. It is primarily due to these factors that the government should work towards encouraging people to lead active lives. To successfully achieve this particular objective, a number of government measures such as improving the public awareness regarding the benefits that people can be able to acquire from exercising should be undertaken. Policies should also be enacted that will provide for the government, through various health organizations, to be able to provide motivation, help and advice as pertains to leading active lives. An example of a healthy organization that might possibly be used for this purpose is the NHS in the United Kingdom (NHS 2013). The government should also initiate programs that will promote long term behavior change among the public, these programs could possibly offer a number of health services and tax incentives to people that are able to maintain a given healthy lifestyle in addition to their engaging in regular physical activity. The government should also implement policies that will encourage corporations to offer their employees appropriate working hours that will allow these employees to have enough time to exercise and thus have a measure of flexible work-life balance. If possible the government should conduct a survey to establish the most adversely affected communities that have a culture of not engaging in physical activity. It should then design and initiate fitness programs and health campaigns in these communities. An example of such a fitness program is the Aspire Academy that is run by the Qatar National Health (Aspire Academy 2014). By effectively utilizing its resources, the government can greatly help individuals in leading healthy lifestyles. Conclusion Having a healthy lifestyle and engaging in regular exercise have been proven to have a number of immense benefits for not only the mind, but also the body of an individual. Physically active people often tend to be happier, healthier, financially better and socially active as a result of the rather immense benefits that they constantly reap from leading active lifestyles. It is crucial for people to ensure that they take the individual responsibility to lead active lives so as to guarantee that they will get to enjoy the colossal benefits generally associated with the lifestyle. The government has a very crucial role to play in this function as it can formulate a number of policies that will serve to provide an exercise friendly environment for its citizens. It can also implement programs that will encourage all its citizens to try and become more physically active so as to benefit from a number of available incentives. Physical activity and a healthy lifestyle have a number of vital benefits such as reducing the risk of an individual contracting chronic diseases such as some forms of cancer or even severe heart diseases. Active lifestyles an also be of great aid in helping to reduce possible financial expenses as in the event that an individual happens to contract these diseases, it will be very difficult and expense to successfully treat them. Some of these diseases might also be quite fatal as there is no known cure for them. Bibliography Aspire Academy. 2012. What we do. Available online at http://www.aspire.qa/Pages/AspireHome.aspx C3 Collaborating for Health. 2011. The benefits of physical activity for health and well-being, available online at http://www.c3health.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/C3-review -of-physical-activity-and-health-v-1-20110603.pdf Department of Health and Human Services, Physical activity and health, available online at http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/sgr/pdf/execsumm.pdf Hardman, A. and Stensel, D. 2009. Physical Activity and Health: The Evidence Explained. Taylor & Francis. Jarvie, Grant. 2006. Sport, Culture and Society: An Introduction. Routledge Publishers. Mahfoud, A.. 2012. Sport, Politics and Society in the Arab World. Palgrave MacMillan Publishers. United Kingdom. NHS. 2013. Benefits of exercise, available online at http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/fitness/Pages/Whybeactive.aspx Read More