General Health Improving Activities - Case Study Example

GENERAL HEALTH A special letter to Sarah Dear Sarah Greetings. In life, people involve in different activities that improve their health and general well-being, all this activities are important in one way or another. In order to maintain our general health, it is important that people stick to good diet and stay safe in their environment. However, sometimes the activities we do exposes us to different hazards, this means that care should always be taken when participating in different games and activities. It is important to understand in all these things, sometimes accidents are unavoidable, but, if there are things that need to be regarded with care, then it is important that we take no chances but protect ourselves. Modern developments in health practices have seen many people receive treatment for different accidents and ailments in and resume normal life. The fear of involving in an accident should not however override the motivation to participate and keep fit. There have been several examples from different parts of the world about people who broke their limbs while driving, playing or involvement in dangerous activities. Some of this people received treatment through amputation and psychiatric interventions and resumed normal life. The sporting activity has witnessed several people participate in sports as normal people after they were amputed. For instance, in South Africa, Oscar Pistorious, a renowned athlete, has been successful in middle distance running, scooping various medals in national and international events. Successful amputation of his legs enabled him to reach his goal of winning medals at national and international level. In fact, the Paralympics federation has been on the forefront encouraging people with physical disabilities of whichever kind to participate in different sports activities. Sarah, you need to know that hurting a leg while cycling, and managing to get successful rehabilitation should not be a worry and a reason for not to get back to riding again. One of the things that happen in most of the people that have encountered accidents is the fear of re-occurrence of the accident again in related activities. The fact that an accident happened when participating in an activity does not provide the probability that the same will happen in subsequent participations. It is important that you embrace a positive spirit and not hang on previous hurtful experiences. One of the things that is likely to happen when you hold on discouraging thoughts especially after such an accident is that you may develop stress and depression. It has always been said that people hold too much on their past experiences especially those that are hurtful. This is usually a potential cause of stress and depression, something that has a high probability to affect the health status of particular individuals. It is always important to think positive and look forward to a bright future in the midst of hurtful situations. Treatment of stress and depression is largely effective when patients concerned take the recommendations that are provided by their doctors. One of the easiest and cheapest methods of treatment of stress and depression is continuous participation and involvement in exercises. The decision to get back to bicycle riding after successful leg treatment will go a long way in enabling you get back to normal life activities. It will be of no good to continue to cry pity over your situation and experiences that you underwent. Instead, it is important to focus on how active involvement can make way for you professional involvement in cycling in other sporting activities. The thinking of cycling on a professional level will go a long way in activating the hormones that enhance mental healing processes (Flicker, Lautenschlager & Almeida 2006, p. 95; Jorm, Christensen & Griffiths, 2001, p.43). One of the ways of managing stress levels that are slightly rising is through active involvement in exercises, one needs to create an exercise schedule with which she can take slight exercises and later graduate to involve in more exercises that are complex. It is important for you to know that everybody is familiar with stress and the harmful effects it can have on health, the negative effects of stress have become widespread and are continuing to grow in modern lives. In general, our response to stress is often triggered when we encounter different overwhelming situations. The demands may be small or big, at the same time various occurrences like accidents have the ability to build stress levels in our minds. The importance that we attach on different events and the manner in which we manage our various experiences and encounters determine the level of stress on our lives. People need to understand that stress grows slowly and sometimes can fade away in our body and mind depending on how we control it, at the same time, it may aggravate and lead to more harm and even death. Having this information in should provide important knowledge and skills into effective ways of managing stress and depression, once the skills are in place, the patients can have stable moods, clear thoughts as well as improve on their relationships. Under these conditions, the risk of illnesses and thoughts about accidents diminish in the mind of the patient enabling her participate in activities like before. Be encouraged that you can still rise again and carry on with your normal exercises or hobbies. Do not be discouraged by past experiences, you can start on light exercising then gain actively in physical exercise as your momentum slowly builds up. Best Wishes From _______ Probable physical activities for participation In order to reduce the thoughts of hurting experiences Sarah should think of ways of actively involving in various exercises, this is important in helping him change his thought and general cognitive processes towards performing her normal life activities. Bicycle riding is an important exercise that can provide important exercise and body fitness levels, one of the advantages of this exercise on Sarah is that she already has knowledge and skills that is relevant for doing it. Besides cycling exercises, other activities can be essential in reaching this exercising role. For instance, active participation in aerobics has been known to elicit remarkable transformation not only in the body of particular individuals, but also improves their general metabolism as well as the pumping of the heart. At the same time, exercise has also been cited as a way of improving the spirit of people. It is important to understand that various exercises in aerobics are good for a person’s head, in the same way as they are for the heart. Aerobic isometrics has an exceptional and a special capability to enliven and ease as well as offer encouragement and calmness in the person doing it. This way depression levels are easily countered and stress levels dissipitated. Various medical tests and trials have been recommended on several occasion to treat cases of anxiety and depression levels in different people. One of the questions that linger in the minds of several people is how exercise can help in containing problems such as anxiety and depression. Several explanations can be advanced for this concern, some of which are chemical and other behavioral in nature. The mental benefits of aerobics to people that actively take part in them have a neurochemical basis. Exercise is important since it reduces and eliminates the body’s levels of stress hormones that build up in certain situations; examples of such stress hormones include adrenaline and cortisol. At the same time, exercise stimulates the production of endorphin chemicals in the body, a naturally known painkiller and body elevator. When taking part in exercises and related activities, it is important for people to understand that behavioral factors contribute to several emotional benefits. As the waistline shrinks and the body’s strength and stamina increases, the self –image of the person doing the exercise increases, offering a sense of pride and self confidence. This means that the individual’s vigor enables him succeed in different tasks, for this reason, participating in aerobics will enable Sarah to take part in bicycle riding as before and also enable her attend to her normal duties without thinking of the past hurtful experiences about the accident. Aerobics is not the only alternative to exercise preferences in reducing depressions and stress levels, Sarah can as well participate in light jogging and walking. Various studies have shown that walking and jogging exercises at regular intervals on weekly basis has the same effect of aerobics. The advantage with jogging is that it does not require any special trainer, for people who are starting and have never done such exercise, they need to start by doing light runs and jogs, soon then body gets used to and the distance covered when running and walking can be extended slowly. Other kinds of physical activities that Sarah can participate into include, playing tennis as well as yoga exercises. At the same time, pushing a lawn mower is also an important activity that can enable a person to achieve the same benefits of exercise as those doing aerobics or complex activities. However, one thing that’s is important that people who have not participated in exercises should be prepared for accumulation of lactic acid in the body muscles which can be painful in the initial stages, but as the person gets used to it, the muscles become more flexible. Regular and consistent attention to exercise schedules should be observed by all people who want to create and improve their fitness levels. It is important to develop long term goals when deciding to participate in certain physical activities mean to give the body exercise. It should not be aimed at solving a certain problem and thereafter abandoning it. This ensures that someone remains healthy, fit and able to fight diseases and ailments that may attack the body as well as cognitive processes. Justification on the importance of physical exercises Many scholars have made a lot of progress in determining the reasons for peoples deteriorating health in many places, these efforts have brought the realization that depression together with anxiety are among the major causes non fatal diseases in many people (Blashki, Hickie& Davenport, 2001, p. 23-4; Brosse, et al. 2002, p. 745). While people die of accidents and other ailments, there are millions that dies from various circumstances that can be regarded as being non fatal. Depression and anxiety have also been cited as the second most common causes of lost health in many community members. There are different activities that people take part in their bid to meet their daily needs, when some of them are not met, people become disappointed and start developing depression and anxiety, this result in accumulation of stress levels that deteriorates the health and psychological well being of the people involved. It has been reported that in order to counter this problems and others that related to this, physical activity plays an important and central role (Brenes, et al 2007, p. 65; Craft &Perna 2004, p. 105; Daley, Macarthur & Winter, 2007, p. 57). Many learning institutions have created physical activity schedules and curricular for their learners to learn the importance of exercise and its related health benefits. Across many societies, it is evident that many people do not follow strictly exercising routines due to different reasons, for some; it is because of work schedules that make it difficult to participate in exercises and physical activities. Health wise, it is recommended that an individual spare at least 30 minutes in a day to participate in physical acidities or any kind of body exercise. Doing physical activities has been known to produce an increase in a person’s breathing depth while allowing him to talk comfortably. Patients that have been known to suffer from depression experience increased levels of fatigue, disturbances in getting proper sleep as well as musculoskeletal aches. Some patients felt moody symptoms as well increased anxiety levels, all this symptoms increases in there severity when the problems is not effectively addressed (Ellis & Smith, 2002, p. 80; Frazer, Christensen & Griffiths, 2005, p. 630). The onset and regular occurrence of depression, anxiety as well as stress is often associated with a variety of risk factors which include genetic, development, family, social as well as current environmental factors. Health practitioners have always been on the forefront in advising and encouraging people to take part in exercises to reduce cases of stress and depression levels. It is always an important undertaking to evaluate the prevailing psychosocial health of the people alongside different chronic disease conditions; this is because comorbid depression can be at the doorstep, something that is usually overlooked by many people. At the moment, some health experts have been advocating for screening of patients while offering primary care so as to ascertain presence of depression and its assumed levels (Hickie, Davenport & Ricci, 2002, p. 111; Jorm, Christensen & Griffiths, 2001, p. 98). This makes it possible for health practitioners to prescribe reliable practices that the patient can undertake. Physical inactivity has now been cited as modifiable risk factor that is highly responsible for increased cases of depression as well as other chronic diseases. In fact, it has been known to known to have a direct link to various cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension (Blumenthal et al. 2004, p. 750; Bunker, Colquhoun & Murray 2003, p. 275), obesity and diabetes mellitus. Research has shown that the risk of depression is inversely linked to physically, such that people who do not actively take part in exercises are at high risks of having these diseases and more. Active and regular involvement in different physical activities and exercises has a way of increasing an individual’s short and long-term psychosocial well being (Hickie 1999, p. 175). This is usually through a reduction in feelings of stress and anxiety levels as well as depression (Collingwood 2006, p. 1; Dunn et al 2005, p. 5), this is the reason why people should find various ways of involving in different exercises whether on individual level, or by group participation. Reviews of intervention studies have often concluded that available evidence underpins the beneficial effects of physical activity and body exercise on depression (Pedersen & Saltin 2006 p. 10-11; Paluska & Schwenk 2006, p. 170). On the contrary, a life of active physical activity has often been linked with good and proper psychological health in all groups of people, be it the elderly, young and children. Other important factors contributing to the same effect are increased intellectual stimulation, avoidance of smoking and other illicit addiction as well as proper healthy eating. In many countries, groups of population that are mostly characteristic of various health impacts are those that have high rates of inactive lifestyles (Cassidy, Kotynia & Acres 2004, p. 945; Hickie 2002, p. 86), increased smoking and addiction to drugs as well as alcohol intakes. Most of these categories o people have high rates of depression and stress because they are always worried of how they can effectively manage their lives and move to higher classes of the society. Low incomes as well as hard economic times coupled with personal problems contribute to increased depression and stress levels. Recommendations Currently, there is a general interest in the role played by active involvement in physical activities in the care and management of depression and stress (Warburton, Nicol & Bredin 2006 p. 805; Sallis & Owen 1999 p. 67; O’Neal, Dunn & Martinsen 2000 p. 110). This follows early evidence that showed physical activity an essential remedy in reducing mild to moderate depression and anxiety levels. Participating in physical activities for people suffering from depression has been known release antidepressant effects as early as within two weeks of involvement (Ernst et at 2006 p. 85; Ellis 2004, p. 30). The best and easy way for people to begin involving in physical exercises should be creating a small exercise schedule that can involve doing simple walking exercises for close to five times a week. This means that one can commit to doing about 3 sessions in a day or more depending on the way his body gets used to the exercises. In order not to run out of breath, each session can be allocated 10 minutes for beginners, but the time can increase as time goes by For people suffering from stress, such exercises can be the best therapy for reducing and eliminating stress levels (Collingwood 2006 p. 1). However, people should understand that involvement in physical activities should be a daily routine for everybody, not just for those suffering from stress and depression. Bibliography Blashki G, Hickie I, B & Davenport T, A. 2001. Providing psychological treatments in general practice: how will it work? Med Journal Aust; Vol 179. No, 2. pp. 23–25. 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