Postural Image Controversy - Essay Example

?Postural Image Controversy Analysis for the Reason of Choosing the Topic The topic that sounds so endlessly controversial is about the demographicaldifferences about the health of young versus old and male versus female. The present paper will obviously tackle who among these groups are considered to have greater health. Health has been too general, but in order to make it more specific, the present paper will investigate the postural health matters of age and gender differences. With this, it could be analytically emphasized that the topic involves an in-depth investigation in answering and looking beneath the obvious. Are men really healthier and sturdier when it comes to postural matters? Are the young ones having greater calcium that could make them stand and pose more stable than the old ones? These questions could then critically lead one to think other factors that could affect the postural development of individuals. The factors may involve psychological and environmental issues. Therefore, the present paper could be analyzed how it will contribute and affirm to the questions stated if they would serve to be true or they would literally serve as a myth. The results could be deemed surprising, but with the involvement of psychological and environmental factors, the mental assets and biological constraints could be advantageously determined. Debate Summary from Source Material The source material for the debate on demographical differences is Sullivan, Rose, Rohlfing, and Pfefferbaum’s study on “Postural Sway Reduction on Aging Men and Women: Relation to Brain Structure, Cognitive Status, and Stabilizing Factors.” This source showed the debate differences with biological connections to the brain. One of the contemporary examples who claimed that the cerebellum plays a great role in balancing is Baker et al. (1999) (as cited in Sullivan, Rose, Rohlfing, & Pfefferbaum 2009, p. 794). He mentioned that the “superior vermis of the cerebellum” will be affected by the alcoholic and any other intakes such as food of an individual, which suggest that too much of unhealthy foods and drinks like the beverages could lead to mechanical and chemical imbalances of the body, which will in turn affect one’s ability to control body movement. However, Bortolani et al. (2006) have studied about the anterior-posterior and the medial-lateral position differences of men and women (as cited in Sullivan, Rose, Rohlfing, & Pfefferbaum, 2009, p. 794). On the other hand, Collins et al. (1995) assert that the major components of postural system could be accountable to postural imbalances (as cited in Sullivan, Rose, Rohlfing, & Pfefferbaum, 2009, p. 795). The components involve the open-loop and close-loop. The former requires one to maintain an erect or upright style of posture for short-term interval while the latter allows one to stand for a long-term period of time. This could indicate that the close-loop would be indicative of one’s greater potential to stand firm and could have a greater ability for postural maintenance. Strengths and Weaknesses of the Study with Resemblance on the Debate The strength of the article includes the quality of its study in which it’s based on experimental. Experimental research based could make the study reliable and accountable because the results were more realistically and instantly tested. Therefore, with the instant impact of the testing results, the study undergoes a process where their hypothesis was studied in a less time consuming way. On the other hand, the weakness could be its inability or lack of making how its words could be explained in layman’s term. The formation and construction of sentences could lead the readers to misinterpret the meaning of these sentences especially when the words involve some scientific and biological terms. Description of New Article (Results, Discussion) The results and discussion of the new article are preceded with its purpose with the main hypothesis on how brain malfunctions could predict future postural imbalances in identifying neurological misconnections. This would then involve the function of superior vermis of cerebellum which is found to be relevant to postural balances (Sullivan, Rose, Rohlfing, & Pfefferbaum, 2009). Over-alcoholism is confirmed to affect the neurological connections of the brain that could deteriorate the function of the body especially for those who are aging. The new article also found that anterior-posterior to medial-lateral and open-loop to close-loop components are not two different controversies relative to postural movements, but instead they are related and they interact to each other. The anterior-posterior and the medial-lateral are both directions that every man and woman and young and old age could execute, but there is a matter of difference of how these people could stand for these directions in open-loop or close-loop durations of time. The study indicated and explained how men are more likely to execute open-loop especially when they get older compared to women. Therefore, women could have stronger calcium when they get old than men. Men and women are both found to execute the same sets of directions whether it would be anterior-posterior to medial-lateral executions. However, the results of the new article indicate that Anterior-posterior state of balance would be more common to men compared to women. This could lead to age differences that older men would be found to have lesser control of balance using their ankles and plantar as they would get old. Older men could have swaying positions and imbalances compared to young men (Rogers, Fernandez, & Bohlken, 2001). However, the study also found that women could portray more challenging positions with some medial-lateral execution of activities. This finding suggests that women, when they get old, could have more balancing control as they would age compared to men. With the suggestions of findings, one could understand that the anterior-posterior and the medial-lateral differed in the postural style in which the anterior-posterior does not require one to curve one’s body or to make some arch movements than the medial-lateral style. Therefore, with cognition and postural directions relative to postural components, one could greatly think of ways that could make these things normal. With this, Sullivan, Rose, & Pfefferbaum (2006) suggested that exercise could make one’s postural image stable even in one’s own late years in life. Analysis on the Relevance of New Article to the Debate The new article has been relevant to the debate on whom among the age and gender differences have the most and best fit postural images. Since the method used in the new article is experimental which clarified the reasons behind with regard to this controversy, the study is already found to be a contribution to future studies that wanted to replicate their ways and purpose. It has also promoted how physical health and wellness could be important to enhance and make one’s neurological connection to cerebellum to be alerted. Moreover, with its advisory on exercise, the article could be analyzed as something practical because one could not only enhance the biological premises of neurology in connection to the brain, but one could also learn and confirm how oldies could stay young and flexible in executing the postural directions with the best postural component, the close-loop system. Word Count: 1169 References Rogers, M. E., Fernandez, J. E., & Bohlken, R. M. (2001). Training to reduce postural sway and increase functional reach in the elderly. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, 11 (4), 291-298. Sullivan, E. V., Rose, J., & Pfefferbaum, A. (2006). Effect of vision, touch, and stance on cerebellar vermian-related sway and tremor: A quantitative physiological and MRI study. Cerebral Cortex, 16, 1077-1086. Sullivan, E. V., Rose, J., Rohlfing, T., & Pfefferbaum, A. (2009). Postural sway reduction in aging men and women: Relation to brain structure, cognitive status, and stabilizing factors. Neurobiology of Aging, 30, 793-807. Read More