Week 8/9: Gathering the Information

How can a six week physical health intervention improve the lifestyle of a 70-year-old man?

Sub-questions

1. How does physical exercise improve mood/mental health?
2. Is exercise the most efficient way to loose weight?
3. What are the consequences of physically unactive
4. How much exercise is recommended for 70-year-old men?

We chose this topic so that we can focus on the best possible way to improve our clients lifestyle. This will also help our research by giving us accurate and reliable answers from our client.

For this intervention, I need to know both the advantages and risks of physical exercise and the most effective way to implement this dimension of health into a persons life.

I need to liaise with the client to ensure he is comfortable with the program assigned to him and to see if it fits into his current lifestyle. I also need to liaise with my partner Steph to make sure this intervention is accurate and successful.

We need to be able to keep in contact with our client to receive feedback on how the intervention is working for him and if it is effective or not.

I am feeling good about our project at this point in time as we have a clear plan and target.

Answers to Sub questions:

1. How does physical exercise improve mood/mental health?

Physical exercise has been proven to have a positive effect on both physical and mental health. It can help to improve diseases such as depression, anxiety, ADHD and many more. By doing exercise on a regular basis, can also help to relieve stress, improve memory, help you sleep better, and boost your overall mood. This is because people feel more energetic throughout the day, sleep better at night, have sharper memories, and feel more relaxed and positive about themselves and their lives when they exercise. For example research shows that exercise can be as effective as antidepressants for mild depression. Not only does it positively impact mental health issues, but it also helps to reduce the risk of illness such as heart and lung disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, cancer, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. This can also help people recover from a stroke and many other illnesses which especially appeals to our client.

People who do physical exercise often report how good it makes them feel. This is because doing physical exercise can help to boost self esteem levels. Exercise can also help distract from negative thoughts and can be an outlet for frustrations.

2. Is exercise the most efficient way to lose weight?

The best way to lose weight is exercise combined with a healthy nutrition program. It is essential to be conscience of all dimensions of health but the main two elements involved in loosing weight is diet and physical health. While exercise is a great way to lose weight, it is only part of the equation. Losing weight is essentially burning calories, so by making sure our client keeps up his healthy diet, he will be able to lose the weight within the six week health intervention. Not only does physical exercise benefit you in the short term, by loosing weight, but it also has large benefits in the long term. These benefits include lower blood pressure, lower blood cholesterol level, lower risk of a heart attack, unlikely to develop osteoporosis and diabetes and lowers your risk of getting some types of cancer. To prevent problems like these, most health professionals recommend as least 30 mins of moderate-intensity on most days.

The specific exercises that help you to lose weight can vary. The main type of exercise used to burn weight is cardiovascular training. Professionals recommend 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic training a week in order to lose weight. This form of exercise also helps to improve cardiovascular health, lower blood pressure, regulate blood sugar, reduces asthma symptoms, reduces chronic pain, aids sleep and more.

3. What are the consequences of being physically unactive

Being physically inactive brings out negative results. These are mostly opposite to the benefits of being physically active. For example less active people have a greater risk of developing higher blood pressure. Lack of physical exercise can also lead to weaker bones which lowers ability to participate in daily activities for older adults. Inactivity can also lead to certain types of cancer and people who don’t exercise are more likely to gain weight as they are burning fewer calories. These people are also more likely to show signs of depression and anxiety which exercise helps to prevent.

4. How much exercise is recommended for 70-year-old men?

Harvard medical school warn that “individuals age at different rates. There is considerable variation even at advanced age.” However other health professionals have recommended that older adults should exercise for around 30 minutes at moderate intensity, most days. Some suggested exercises include dancing, brisk walking, cycling, or swimming. It is also good to enjoy different activities throughout the week. The minimum time for moderately intense aerobic exercise is 30 minutes per day, but you will get even more benefits if you can exercise for 60 minutes per day. 

This intervention will be during the first 6 weeks of term 2 (23rd April – 7th June). From here I will need to create the intervention and to keep updating my blog posts according to how our intervention is going.