Amar Nath Mukherjee
Before dwelling on the subject, let us try to indicate the meaning of wellness. Wellness is basically a state of our body and mind which is how effectively responding and recouping from a disturbed state to a normal state. In medical parlance it can be defined as to how soon our psychosomatic system comes back to a normal state (homeostasis) from an unstable state.
For
example, when we do work out or running around, obviously our heart rate
increases, but when we come back to rest how soon our heart rate comes down to
normal level. Similarly, breathing frequency also increases during that
physical activity; it should also come down to normal breathing rate in short
period in a stressful situation. We are likely to be tensed but how soon we can
mentally normalize, in case of over ailment, how soon we convalesce. These are
all indicative of over wellness states, both body and mind.
Now
the wellness condition is largely dependent on our physical fitness and also on
mental and emotional stability and status.
Our
fitness criteria depend on factors which are as follows.
a) One
should have an accepted norm of body weight, i.e body mass index between 19 and
25.
b) The
waistline measurement should be less than 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women,
waist to hip ratio is also important in this matter.
c) All
the major joints viz. neck, shoulder, waist, hip etc. should be adequately
flexible.
d) All
the major muscles viz. back, abdominal, shoulder, hand, leg should be well
toned
e) Air
intake capacity of our lungs should be well maintained so as not to be gasping
for breathing on short jogging or on climbing stairs.
f) Normal
blood chemistry viz. lipid profile, hemoglobin, creatinine, sugar level etc.
are to be maintained.
g) Regular
bowel movement with formed defecation should be maintained.
h) Emotionally
and mentally stable so as to be able to effectively handle the stressful
situation.
There
is a direct relationship between wellness and fitness states of our
physiological system, which can be formulated by an abstract equation.
1. W
α F
Or
W= (E+d) F
Where
W= Wellness. F =Fitness, E= Exercise, d=diet
2. W
α 1/S
Or
W= ( E+ d)/S x M
Where,
W= wellness, S= sickness, d=diet, E= Exercise, M= Medical assistance.
To
keep the balance between wellness and fitness as per the said equation (1) we
must have to improve and sustain our workout and proper diet.
In
the case of the equation (2) there is one ‘M’ factor that has been introduced,
the implication of this ‘M’ is that when we have some sickness like
blood pressure, diabetes, heart problems etc. only exercise and diet are not
sufficient, it must have to be addressed by medical assistance.
In
medical treatments there are two parts. One is preventive and other curative,
now the curative part is normally expensive, at times the patients spend their
major earnings and assets for curative treatment but for preventive portion the
expenses are insignificant.
Regular
exercise and proper diet ensure us to maintain our wellness state - that is
lesser and lesser chance of getting inflicted with various diseases. We can
therefore reasonably infer that all types of workouts - be it jogging, brisk
walking, swimming, yoga etc. act as preventive and not curative against
disease. Nevertheless, few physical culturist or yogis wrongly claim it as to
be curative and sell the idea as that.
However,
going back to the subject we can say that our achievement of wellness is
essentially dependent on our fitness endeavor, as such wellness is the result
and the fitness is our endeavor.
To
conclude, must you not put at stake your wellness for your occupation lest you may
terribly repent at the end of the day.
