Participants: Don Morgan
Series Code: WM
Program Code: WM000399
00:01 The following program presents principles
00:03 designed to promote good health and is 00:04 not intended to take the place of 00:05 personalized professional care. 00:08 The opinions and ideas expressed are those 00:10 of the speaker. Viewers are encouraged to draw 00:13 their own conclusions about 00:14 the information presented. 00:36 Whether you are youngster, a young adult 00:38 or in your golden years, physical activity is 00:42 vital to your health and well-being. 00:45 Hello and welcome to Wonderfully Made. 00:48 My name is Don Morgan and I'm an exercise 00:51 physiologist, who teaches in the Department of 00:53 Health and Human Performance at Middle 00:56 Tennessee State University. This is the final 01:00 presentation in a series of 11 programs that have 01:04 highlighted the importance of physical 01:06 activity as a corner stone of good health. 01:10 Today, I want to review some of the major points 01:14 that have been discussed in this health series. 01:17 So, that you can feel encouraged, energized, 01:21 and empowered to live a physically active life. 01:25 Towards the end of the program, I'll also share a 01:28 personal testimony about the positive changes that 01:32 have occurred in my own life as a result of 01:35 engaging in a regular routine of physical 01:38 activity and exercise. Early on in this series 01:45 I emphasized the spiritual dimensions of leading a 01:48 physically active life. If one considers examples 01:52 in the natural world, the heavenly bodies, which 01:55 surround us the oceans, the rivers, the roaring 01:59 surf, and the wind. The common feature of all 02:04 of these phenomena is motion and if one piers 02:10 inside the human body, physiological process is 02:14 like breathing, the circulation of the blood 02:18 and muscle contraction, all of these signify the life 02:22 giving properties associated with movement. 02:27 We worship a God, who has created a universe 02:31 that operates on the foundational principles of 02:35 action and motion. So, when we seek out 02:40 opportunities to be physically active, we fit 02:44 seamlessly into God's creation plan. 02:48 A plan in which movement and activity 02:51 are the norm and not the exception, in this health 02:57 series I have tried to impart factual 03:00 information about the many health benefits 03:02 of regular physical activity. However, knowledge 03:08 about the benefits of physical activity really 03:11 isn't much help, unless they are tied to the 03:14 practice of physical activity. For those of you, 03:19 who lead active lives there is almost an 03:23 instinctive understanding of how essential physical 03:27 activity is in the maintenance of good health. 03:32 If it's your desire to start down the road to better 03:36 health and fitness, it is vital to find a reason that 03:41 you can identify with for becoming physically active. 03:46 As I have mentioned before there is no single 03:50 overwriting rationale that will work for everyone, 03:54 but there is a reason to be active that will make 03:57 sense to each person watching this program today. 04:02 For example, perhaps you've come to appreciate 04:06 the sheer enormity of the health blessings that 04:10 come from adopting an active lifestyle. 04:14 If you've been watching this series of programs, 04:18 you've learned that health producing physical activity 04:21 can lower the risk of dying from heart disease, 04:24 reduce high blood pressure, prevent weight 04:28 gain, promote weight loss and decrease high fat 04:33 levels in the blood. Regular amounts of 04:37 physical activity and exercise can also lower 04:40 the risk of developing type II diabetes, reduce 04:44 the chance of developing some site-specific 04:47 cancers, increase muscular strength and 04:50 bone density and improve various aspects 04:55 of mental health. Maybe you are not functioning as 05:00 well as you used to and you want to become 05:03 stronger and more fit. So, that you can perform 05:06 daily living tasks more effectively. 05:11 It's possible that a recent medical crisis has gotten 05:14 your attention or you've decided that you want to 05:18 look and feel better or you've come to realize 05:23 that your health and well-being matters not just 05:27 to you but to others, who love you, care for you 05:33 and depend on you. Whatever it is that 05:36 motivates you to become more active, the key is to 05:41 find a reason that has personal meaning for you, 05:45 because it will be this reason that will serve as 05:49 an internal compass and guide to keep you 05:53 motivated to daily energize your 05:55 body with physical activity. 05:59 As you leave your sedentary existence 06:01 behind and begin to live an active life, 06:06 you will start to reap the physical, the mental, and 06:10 the spiritual blessings that God so wants to 06:13 bestow upon you. How much physical activity 06:19 is needed to improve ones health? 06:23 According to the 1996 Surgeon General's Report 06:26 on physical activity and health, people of all ages 06:31 should engage in a minimum of 30 minutes 06:34 of moderate physical activity on most, 06:37 if not all days of the week. This activity can 06:43 either be performed in one session or it can be 06:46 broken up into smaller chunks of time, 06:50 either approach can yield good health and 06:53 fitness benefits. One way to know that you are 06:57 exercising at a moderate intensity is if you can 07:01 easily carry on a conversation with a 07:04 fellow exerciser. Examples of health 07:08 producing physical activity can include 07:10 structured exercise like walking 30 minutes a day 07:15 or playing volleyball in a community league 07:18 two nights a week. Health benefits can also be 07:22 gained through more unstructured physical 07:24 activities like pushing a baby stroller, gardening 07:29 or playing pick up basketball on the weekend. 07:32 If you lead a busy life like I'm sure many of you do, 07:38 there are variety of simple, yet effective ways to 07:42 accumulate physical activity during the course 07:45 of a normal day. These include parking your 07:50 car farther away from where you work or shop 07:53 or getting off the bus or train several blocks from 07:56 your destination. If you are trying to get from point 08:01 A to point B meander or wander just a bit, 08:08 before you arrive at where you are going, 08:12 doing lunch or breaks in the work day, take a short 08:15 walk around your office building or when 08:18 transacting business at the local bank 08:22 avoid using the driven teller. You can play with 08:26 your kids or grand kids at home or at the park 08:30 or if you are watching TV avoid using the remote 08:34 control device and actually get up to change the 08:38 channels. Now, that is novel idea, even fidgeting 08:46 may help to limit unwanted weight gain, 08:51 there are numerous opportunities for each of 08:53 us to engage in health producing physical 08:56 activity, all we have to do is to take advantage of 09:01 them, by accumulating small bits of physical 09:05 activities throughout the day you will eventually 09:09 notice definite improvements in your 09:11 overall health status. You know we make time 09:17 to do the things that hold a lot of importance for us, 09:22 whether it's shopping at the mall, spending time 09:25 with loved ones or watching the Super Bowl 09:29 with friends, we make time to do the things that 09:32 have meaning for us. When you are attempted 09:35 to think that you just don't have enough time to 09:38 exercise, I want you to remember something 09:41 and that is this, there are 1440 minutes in everyday. 09:49 Your goal is to simply try and spend at least 30 of 09:53 them being physical active. 09:58 In the fourth program in this series, we examine the 10:02 physical activity levels of a Canadian Amish 10:05 Farming Community. The Amish continue to live 10:10 as they have for centuries, avoiding electricity, 10:14 gas power transportation as well as other 10:17 conveniences of modern society that we have 10:19 come to take for granted. In a study of nearly 100 10:25 Amish men and women, who lived in rural setting, 10:29 pedometers were used to quantify their physical 10:32 activity levels. Findings from this investigation 10:36 reveled that the Amish men averaged more than 10:39 18000 steps per day, while the Amish women 10:44 took more than 14000 steps per day. 10:49 Using a threshold of 10,000 steps per day as 10:52 being indicative of an active person, it's clear 10:56 that the normal physical labor and work tasks 10:59 performed by the Amish study participants were 11:03 reflective of a very active lifestyle. 11:08 From a health perspective, the levels of obesity and 11:11 excessive weight seen in this group were much 11:15 lower than values reported for age-matched 11:18 non-Amish adults and given the typical Amish 11:24 Diet, which is high in fat and refined sugar 11:29 and includes staples such as meat, potatoes, gravy, 11:32 eggs and desserts. It seems reasonable to 11:36 suggest that the elevated level of lifestyle physical 11:40 activity displayed by the Amish was a key factor in 11:46 explaining their lower incidence of obesity and 11:49 overweightness compared to the general population. 11:56 Those who have listened to me in earlier programs 11:59 know that I am a strong proponent of using 12:02 pedometers like these, to estimate the volume of 12:06 physical activity performed in activities like walking 12:09 or running. The first step in using a pedometer is 12:16 to determine your average daily step count, 12:19 to do this simply record how many steps you take 12:24 each day with your pedometer over a five to 12:27 seven day period and then average these daily values 12:32 to derive your normal daily step count. 12:36 Once you've calculated this figure increase the 12:39 number of steps taken by approximately 10% 12:44 and attempt to increase your lifestyle physical 12:46 activity over the next one to two weeks using 12:50 some of the examples I talked about before to 12:53 reach this new goal. If you are able to attain 12:58 this goal, continue to establish new stepping 13:02 levels in the coming weeks until you arrive at 13:06 a daily step count that you are comfortable with 13:10 and that you feel you can reasonably sustain. 13:14 On the other hand if you don't reach your step 13:17 goal, continue to work towards it or reduce it 13:22 slightly until you're successful. 13:26 For many people pedometers serve as an 13:29 excellent motivational tool and can provide a 13:33 good sense of whether you are on track in 13:36 accumulating physical activity or whether you are 13:39 behind and need to step up your daily activity level. 13:47 One important take home message from this series 13:50 of programs has been that you don't have to engage 13:53 in hard vigorous physical activity to secure 13:57 important health benefits. Data from the Cooper 14:02 Institute for aerobics research has shown that 14:04 men and women exhibiting high levels of 14:07 fitness, displayed the lowest mortality rates 14:11 from both heart disease as well as cancer, 14:15 when compared to persons of poor or 14:17 average fitness. However individuals who exhibited 14:22 just average levels of fitness displayed much 14:26 lower heart disease and cancer death rates than 14:29 those with poor fitness levels. 14:33 To me these findings provide a message of 14:36 hope and encouragement because they show that 14:40 you don't need to exhibit athletic levels of fitness 14:44 to markedly lower your risk of dying from 14:47 common lifestyle diseases like heart 14:49 disease and cancer. By consistently 14:54 accumulating at least 30 minutes of moderate 14:57 intensity physical activity on a daily basis, 15:02 you too can begin to improve your fitness level 15:06 and in the process substantially 15:10 reduce your likelihood of death. 15:15 At the beginning of this program I touched on 15:18 the importance of being physically active 15:21 throughout all phases of ones life. 15:25 In this series I devoted one program exclusively 15:30 to the impact of physical activity in combating 15:33 childhood obesity. Over the past 30 years the 15:38 prevalence of childhood obesity has risen from 15:42 5 to 14% in pre-school children from 4 to 19% 15:49 in children aged six to 11 and from 6 to over 17% 15:56 in children 12 to 19 years of age. 16:01 Moreover the likelihood that an obese child will 16:04 become an obese adult increases as children 16:09 grow older. These sobering statistics 16:13 emphasize the need for parents and schools 16:17 to promote physical activity early in a child's 16:20 life to prevent or to moderate excessive weight gain. 16:28 There is much that can be done to raise levels of 16:31 childhood physical activity both in the home 16:34 as well as at school. At home, physical activity 16:39 should be a family affair with time for all to 16:43 participate in activities that everyone can enjoy. 16:48 Whenever possible the goal should be to 16:51 maximize outside time and to minimize inside 16:56 time. As parents it's important to make time 17:01 to take your children to places where they can be 17:03 active like parks and playgrounds. 17:08 In addition, you can join together with other 17:11 families to play basketball, touch football, soccer 17:16 or even hide and seek, children along with other 17:21 family members can be assigned active household 17:25 duties like vacuuming, washing the car 17:28 or mowing the lawn. If your child spends too 17:33 many hours of the day in front of a television 17:35 set or a computer screen, you can begin to 17:39 gradually reduce the amount of time spent 17:43 watching TV, playing computer games, 17:46 or surfing the internet by substituting more 17:50 active pass times. Perhaps the strongest 17:54 statement that parents can make to their children 17:57 is to model a physically active lifestyle, 18:03 my wife and I try to model MIDI behaviors 18:06 to our children like honesty, the value of hard 18:10 work, kindness, responsibility, respect for 18:15 others; behaviors that we want our children to 18:18 emulate. When your children see you been 18:23 physically active on a consistent basis, you are 18:26 not only role modeling a good health habit, but 18:30 you are also speaking volumes to your children 18:34 about how important physical activity is to you. 18:41 When the entire family engages in physical 18:43 activity together everyone receives a good workout, 18:48 everyone expend some energy and everyone in 18:52 the family connects emotionally. 18:56 This last point is very important because what 19:00 most children really want is to simply spend 19:05 more time with their parents. 19:09 Since children spend most of their waking hours at 19:12 school, it's vital to support and lobby for 19:15 quality physical education programs. 19:18 Physical education is a vital component of the 19:21 overall educational curriculum, because it is 19:24 in these classes the children learn how to 19:27 perform the fundamental motor skills that are 19:31 needed to successfully participate in lifetime 19:33 physical activities. Moreover recent findings 19:38 have shown a strong relationship between 19:41 physical fitness levels and academic performance 19:44 as measured by standardized test scores, 19:47 which implies a positive link between a healthy 19:51 body and good school performance. 19:56 Daily time for an structured physical 19:58 activity like recess must also be protected. 20:03 Recent guideline suggest that school age children 20:06 should accumulate at least 60 minutes and up 20:09 to several hours of age appropriate physical 20:12 activity on all or most days of the week. 20:18 It's also recommended that children avoid 20:20 prolong periods of inactivity, especially 20:23 during day light hours. As a final point, it's 20:27 essential that infants, toddlers and preschoolers 20:31 be given ample opportunity to participate in structured 20:35 as well as unstructured physical activity 20:37 experiences in safe and encouraging 20:39 environments. As very young children learn 20:43 how to walk, run, jump, throw, catch and kick 20:47 they begin developing the foundational motor 20:50 skills that are necessary for more complex 20:53 fitness and sport activities. 20:57 At the other end of the lifespan continuum, 21:00 we have either reached our golden years or we 21:03 are on route to reaching them. Consequently it is 21:08 so important for older adults to remain 21:11 physically active, in fact regular doses of 21:15 physical activity can prevent or reduce 21:17 declines in physical function, improve aerobic 21:20 endurance and muscle strength and lower insulin 21:24 resistance in the senior population. 21:27 Other benefits include better bone health, 21:30 less risk for falls and related injuries or 21:33 fractures, increased flexibility and joint range 21:37 of motion and the preservation of cognitive function. 21:42 Overall a regular program of physical activity can 21:47 contribute to a healthy and independent lifestyle 21:50 for the older individual and can lead to better 21:53 functional capacity and a higher quality of life. 21:59 If you have followed the series of programs 22:02 you know that I am an avid runner. 22:06 Well, my pace might charitably be described 22:09 as pedestrian; I really enjoy being able to run 22:13 along the country roads and rolling hills 22:16 of Middle Tennessee. To me there is a wonderful 22:21 sense of freedom that comes from feeling the 22:23 sun and wind against my face, as I run along the 22:27 back roads and survey the rural scenes that dot my 22:32 running path. As a child going up in Hawaii 22:37 I enjoyed many land and water sports and as a 22:41 young adult I played competitive volleyball, 22:45 however with the passage of time I gradually 22:49 became less consistent in my own exercise and 22:53 activity habits, this reduction in physical 22:57 activity became more noticeable about 15 years ago, 23:02 by then I was still physically active but on a 23:06 much more irregular basis. I was busy starting 23:10 a career in my academic field and that took a lot of 23:13 energy, which left less time to devote to 23:17 exercise. In addition, I'd just become a new father 23:22 and I was busy learning how to do that job 23:26 in addition to trying to be a good husband. 23:29 So, I simply rationalize that I didn't have enough 23:32 time to be physically active the way I used to be. 23:37 The first sign that something might be 23:39 wrong with this picture was when I was running 23:42 with a friend and noticed that my heart 23:45 was beating irregularly, because I didn't feel any 23:49 pain or chest pressure I just choked this up as 23:53 an anomaly. However after this happened 23:57 again I was curious so I hooked myself up to an 24:01 EKG machine in my exercise laboratory and 24:05 I monitored my heart activity as I ran on a 24:07 treadmill, as I increased the exercise intensity 24:12 I started noticing that my heart was beating 24:14 more and more irregularly, I stopped the treadmill 24:18 and wondered what's going on here. 24:22 I went to a physician, who ran a complete 24:25 physical on me and he found nothing wrong, 24:27 but he said, why don't you complete a graded 24:30 exercise in the cardiologist office just to be sure. 24:35 I knew of a heart doctor who came with high 24:38 recommendations and I scheduled a 24:40 visit to his office. However, the next day 24:43 just before Sabbath began so it was Friday evening 24:47 I started experiencing continuous heart 24:50 palpitations and I knew enough to realize that 24:53 this wasn't normal that had never occurred before 24:58 and I was as you might imagine very 25:00 apprehensive, so all of us myself, my wife, 25:04 and my one-year-old daughter we all raised to 25:07 the local emergency room, where I spent hours 25:09 hooked up to an EKG machine, as I laid in bed 25:13 trying to remain calm I looked up at my EKG 25:17 reading and I, a number of questions raised 25:19 through my mind, questions that a new 25:22 father shouldn't ever have to ponder. 25:25 Questions like am I going to have heart attack tonight 25:28 and maybe die or will I be able to see my daughter 25:32 grow up or how can I leave my wife with the 25:36 task of raising my daughter. Eventually after four 25:41 hours had passed the palpitations finally 25:44 stopped and we were able to go home, thankful that 25:47 at least for the moment all seemed to be okay. 25:51 I was however shaken to the core and I felt very 25:55 uneasy about what it happened. A few days 25:58 later I underwent a treadmill exercise test 26:01 and consoled myself with a thought that if 26:03 I collapse or passed out at least it would happen in 26:06 a cardiologist office, the result of the test indicated 26:10 that well I did not have any underlying cardiac 26:13 disease, my aerobic fitness was much lower 26:16 than I expected and my blood pressure was in 26:18 elevated range, while the doctor was telling me 26:22 what I needed to do, I thought to myself 26:26 I know exactly what I need to do, I am an 26:28 exercise physiologist. So, from that day forward 26:32 I began walking in the morning and afternoon 26:35 with my wife and soon I was walking dozens of 26:38 miles per week and after a couple of months 26:41 realizing that my heart was still working fine 26:45 I began to run and I've been running fairly 26:48 consistently ever since. I now know that the 26:51 palpitations I experienced were benign and unrelated 26:55 to heart disease however this entire experience was 26:59 a wakeup call to drastically change my approach to 27:03 been physically active. I have no doubt that 27:07 I would have had a major health set back, had I not 27:10 started and maintained a regular program of 27:13 physical activity. My quality of life and 27:16 my ability to perform daily living activities is 27:19 immeasurably better because of the strength 27:22 and fitness that I have gained by finding a place 27:25 for regular physical activity in my life. 27:29 The reason that I've shared this story with you 27:31 is because it illustrates what my reason is for 27:34 adopting a healthy lifestyle. Earlier in this 27:37 program I talked about the need to find a 27:40 personal reason to be physically active, 27:43 for those of you who have listened to this series of 27:46 programs and have been motivated to start and to 27:48 maintain a program of physical activity, you too 27:52 will eventually have a story to tell that will be 27:55 equally meaningful and may lead 27:57 others to adopt an active lifestyle. 28:01 I wish the best for each of you and just 28:03 remember keep walking step by 28:06 step towards better health and fitness. |
Revised 2014-12-17