Physical exercise

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Health & Fitness)

Workout" redirects here. For the television series, see Work Out.

"Exercise" redirects here. For other uses, see Exercise (disambiguation).

A physical exercise is any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health. It is often practiced to strengthen muscles and the cardiovascular system, and to hone athletic skills. Frequent and regular physical exercise boosts the immune system, and helps prevent diseases of affluence such as heart disease, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity.^[1][2] It also improves mental health and helps prevent depression.

Types of exercise

Exercises are generally grouped into three types depending on the overall effect they have on the human body:

• Flexibility exercises such as stretching improve the range of motion of muscles and joints.^[3]
• Aerobic exercises such as cycling, walking, running, hiking or playing tennis focus on increasing cardiovascular endurance.^[4]
• Anaerobic exercises such as weight training, functional training or sprinting increase short-term muscle strength.^[5]

Exercise benefits

Physical exercise is important for maintaining physical fitness and can contribute positively to maintaining a healthy weight, building and maintaining healthy bone density, muscle strength, and joint mobility, promoting physiological well-being, reducing surgical risks, and strengthening the immune system.

Frequent and regular aerobic exercise has been shown to help prevent or treat serious and life-threatening chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, obesity, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, insomnia, and depression. Strength training appears to have continuous energy-burning effects that persist for about 24 hours after the training, though they do not offer the same cardiovascular benefits as aerobic exercises do.

There is conflicting evidence as to whether vigorous exercise (more than 70% of VO₂ Max) is more or less beneficial than moderate exercise (40 to 70% of VO₂ Max). Some studies have shown that vigorous exercise executed by healthy individuals can effectively increase opioid peptides (aka endorphins, a naturally occurring opiate that in conjunction with other neurotransmitters is responsible for exercise induced euphoria and has been shown to be addictive), positively influence hormone production (i.e., increase testosterone and growth hormone),^[6] benefits that are not as fully realized with moderate exercise.

Exercise has been shown to improve cognitive functioning via improvement of hippocampus-dependent spatial learning, and enhancement of synaptic plasticity and neurogenesis.^[7] In addition, physical activity has been shown to be neuroprotective in many neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases.^[8] For instance, it reduces the risk of developing dementia.^[9] Furthermore, anecdotal evidence suggests that frequent exercise may reverse alcohol-induced brain damage.^[10]

Physical activity is thought to have other beneficial effects related to cognition as it increases levels of nerve growth factors, which support the survival and growth of a number of neuronal cells.^[11]

Both aerobic and anaerobic exercise also work to increase the mechanical efficiency of the heart by increasing cardiac volume (aerobic exercise), or myocardial thickness (strength training, see Organ hypertrophy).

Not everyone benefits equally from exercise. There is tremendous variation in individual response to training: where most people will see a moderate increase in endurance from aerobic exercise, some individuals will as much as double their oxygen uptake, while others will never get any benefit at all from the exercise.^[12][13] Similarly, only a minority of people will show significant muscle growth after prolonged weight training, while a larger fraction experience improvements in strength.^[14] This genetic variation in improvement from training is one of the key physiological differences between elite athletes and the larger population.^[15][16] Studies have shown that exercising in middle age leads to better physical ability later in life.^[17]

Excessive exercise

Exercise is a stressor and the stresses of exercise have a catabolic effect on the body - contractile proteins within muscles are consumed for energy, carbohydrates and fats are similarly consumed and connective tissues are stressed and can form micro-tears. However, given adequate nutrition and sufficient rest to avoid overtraining, the body's reaction to this stimulus is to adapt and replete tissues at a higher level than that existing before exercising. The results are all the training effects of regular exercise: increased muscular strength, endurance, bone density, and connective tissue toughness.

Too much exercise can be harmful. The body parts exercised need at least a day of rest, which is why some health experts say one should exercise every other day or 3 times a week. Without proper rest, the chance of stroke or other circulation problems increases,^[19] and muscle tissue may develop slowly. It has also been noted by the medical field that expectant mothers should never exercise two days consecutively.^{[citation needed]}

Inappropriate exercise can do more harm than good, with the definition of "inappropriate" varying according to the individual. For many activities, especially running, there are significant injuries that occur with poorly regimented exercise schedules. In extreme instances, over-exercising induces serious performance loss. Unaccustomed overexertion of muscles leads to rhabdomyolysis (damage to muscle) most often seen in new army recruits.^[20] Another danger is overtraining in which the intensity or volume of training exceeds the body's capacity to recover between bouts.^[21]

Stopping excessive exercise suddenly can also create a change in mood. Feelings of depression and agitation can occur when withdrawal from the natural endorphins produced by exercise occurs. Exercise should be controlled by each body's inherent limitations. While one set of joints and muscles may have the tolerance to withstand multiple marathons, another body may be damaged by 20 minutes of light jogging. This must be determined by each individual.

Too much exercise can also cause a female to miss her period, a symptom known as amenorrhea.^[22]

Health care

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Health care, or healthcare, is the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well being through the services offered by the medical, nursing, and allied health professions. Health care embraces all the goods and services designed to promote health, including “preventive, curative and palliative interventions, whether directed to individuals or to populations”.^[1] The organised provision of such services may constitute a health care system. This can include specific governmental organizations such as, in the UK, the National Health Service or a cooperation across the National Health Service and Social Services as in Shared Care. Before the term "health care" became popular, English-speakers referred to medicine or to the health sector and spoke of the treatment and prevention of illness and disease.

In most developed countries and many developing countries health care is provided to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. The National Health Service, established in 1948 by Clement Atlee's Labour government in the United Kingdom, were the world's first universal health care system provided by government and paid for from general taxation. Alternatively, compulsory government funded health insurance with nominal fees can be provided, as in Italy. Other examples are Medicare in Australia, established in the 1970s by the Labor government, and by the same name Medicare was established in Canada between 1966 and 1984. Universal health care contrasts to the systems like health care in the United States or South Africa, though South Africa is one of the many countries attempting health care reform.^[2] The United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not provide universal health care.^[3][4]

World Health Organization

Main article: World Health Organization

See also: Global health

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialised United Nations agency which acts as a coordinator and researcher for public health around the world. Established on 7 April 1948, and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health Organization, which had been an agency of the League of Nations. The WHO's constitution states that its mission "is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health." Its major task is to combat disease, especially key infectious diseases, and to promote the general health of the peoples of the world. Examples of its work include years of fighting smallpox. In 1979 the WHO declared that the disease had been eradicated - the first disease in history to be completely eliminated by deliberate human design. The WHO is nearing success in developing vaccines against malaria and schistosomiasis and aims to eradicate polio within the next few years. The organization has already endorsed the world's first official HIV/AIDS Toolkit for Zimbabwe from October 3, 2006, making it an international standard.^[14]

The WHO is financed by contributions from member states and from donors. In recent years the WHO's work has involved more collaboration, currently around 80 such partnerships, with NGOs and the pharmaceutical industry, as well as with foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. Voluntary contributions to the WHO from national and local governments, foundations and NGOs, other UN organizations, and the private sector (including pharmaceutical companies), now exceed that of assessed contributions (dues) from its 193 member nations.^[15]

Health

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.^[1]

This definition, which was ratified during the first World Health Assembly, has not been modified since 1948 [1].

Therefore Health may be regarded as a balance of physical, mental and social aspects of life in a being.

Aspects of health

Mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body) is a famous Latin quotation, often translated as "A sound mind in a sound body." It is derived from Satire X of the Roman poet Juvenal (10.356). In context, the phrase is part of the author’s answer to the question of what people should desire in life:

It is to be prayed that the mind be sound in a sound body. Ask for a brave soul that lacks the fear of death, which places the length of life last among nature’s blessings, which is able to bear whatever kind of sufferings, does not know anger, lusts for nothing and believes the hardships and savage labors of Hercules better than the satisfactions, feasts, and feather bed of an Eastern king. I will reveal what you are able to give yourself; For certain, the one footpath of a tranquil life lies through virtue.

orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano. fortem posce animum mortis terrore carentem, qui spatium uitae extremum inter munera ponat naturae, qui ferre queat quoscumque labores, nesciat irasci, cupiat nihil et potiores Herculis aerumnas credat saeuosque labores et uenere et cenis et pluma Sardanapalli. monstro quod ipse tibi possis dare; semita certe tranquillae per uirtutem patet unica uitae. (10.356-64)

The satirical connotation of the phrase, that it would be nice to also have a sound mind in a sound body, is a more recent interpretation of what Juvenal intended to express. Juvenal's intention was to remind those of his fellow Roman citizen who uttered foolish prayers that all that should be prayed for were physical and spiritual health. Over time and separated from its context, the phrase has come to have a range of meanings. It can be construed to mean that only a healthy body can produce or sustain a healthy mind. Its most general usage is to express the concept of a healthy balance in one’s mode of life.

The phrase is foreshadowed by (if not an actual paraphrase from) a saying of Thales

Physical health

Main article: Physical fitness

Physical fitness is good bodily health, and is the result of regular exercise, proper diet and nutrition, and proper rest for physical recovery.

Main article: Human height

A strong indicator of the health of populations is height, which is generally increased by improving nutrition and health care, and is also influenced by the standard of living and quality of life. Genetics is also a major factor in people's height. The study of human growth, its regulators, and its implications is known as Auxology.

Mental health

Main article: Mental health

Mental health refers to a human individual's emotional and psychological well-being. Merriam-Webster defines mental health as "A state of emotional and psychological well-being in which an individual is able to use his or her cognitive and emotional capabilities, function in society, and meet the ordinary demands of everyday life."

According to the World Health Organization, there is no one "official" definition of mental health. Cultural differences, subjective assessments, and competing professional theories all affect how "mental health" is defined. In general, most experts agree that "mental health" and "mental illness" are not opposites. In other words, the absence of a recognized mental disorder is not necessarily an indicator of mental health.

One way to think about mental health is by looking at how effectively and successfully a person functions. Feeling capable and competent; being able to handle normal levels of stress, maintain satisfying relationships, and lead an independent life; and being able to "bounce back," or recover from difficult situations, are all signs of mental health.

Encompassing your emotional, social, and—most importantly—your mental well-being; All these aspects—emotional, physical, and social—must function together to achieve overall health.

Health care

Main article: Health care. See also Public health, below

Health care is the prevention, treatment, and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well being through the services offered by the medical, nursing, and allied health professions. According to the World Health Organization, health care embraces all the goods and services designed to promote health, including “preventive, curative and palliative interventions, whether directed to individuals or to populations”.^[5] The organized provision of such services may constitute a health care system. This can include a specific governmental organization such as the National Health Service in the UK, or a cooperation across the National Health Service and Social Services as in Shared Care.