Survival and physical fitness

(Survival Manual/ 6. Medical/ c) General Clinic/ Survival & physical fitness

“No man who is not willing to help himself has any right to apply to his friends, or to the gods.”
……………………………Demosthenes (384–322 BC, Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens)

1.  Survival & Physical Fitness
2011, No More Dependence, posted in Health/Hygiene
Pasted from:

Being physically fit is important for numerous reasons. Besides the most valuable benefit of increasing one’s own health (and thereby decreasing the risk for infections, diseases, common illness, etc.), being physically fit increases energy levels, boosts self-confidence, improves mental clarity, and generally improves quality of life.

Striving towards physical fitness may not be as fun as getting new gear or as tangible as buying 100 lbs of beans, but No More Dependence sincerely believes that regular exercise, combined with a sensible diet, is one of the most fundamental and practical survival skills to possess.

Ultimately, when weighing likely risks and potential real world survival scenarios, an individual who is generally regarded as physically fit, will have a greater likelihood of survival than his or her out of shape, or weaker, counterpart.

That being said, we’re not advocating everyone should spend every day in a gym exercising, we’re merely observing that as individuals who strive to be prepared and rely less on others, being in shape is a solid tactical advantage.

[Photo: 1968, teenage boys out for a hike.]

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[Photo: fast forward to 2012, teenage girls out for a hike.]

2.  First and foremost to being a Prepper is a mental attitude: That of “I am responsible for me”. If you are relying on the government or others to take care of you then you are a dependent of them, not an independent citizen capable of supporting themselves. And that is exactly what a Prepper is or strives to be – an Independent Citizen capable of supporting themselves. Throw out the attitudes and beliefs that if something happens you’ll let others take care of you. In fact, throw out the notion that nothing bad will ever happen to you – chances are extremely high that it will! Whether it’s a personal, family, neighborhood, city, state, national or world event – bad things happen every single day – dodging them all is pretty near impossible.
Becoming a Prepper requires independence and self-reliance in all areas of our lives including finances, utilities, food, clothing, health, devices and furniture, to name a few key areas.

————–  a major health issue ————-

3.  Being lazy can kill you: Physical inactivity responsible for 5 millions deaths every year
Wednesday, July 18, 2012, NYDaily News, by AFP RELAX NEWS
Pasted from: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/lazy-kill-physical-inactivity-responsible-5-millions-deaths-year-article-1.1116883

Having a couch potato lifestyle is a risk factor comparable to smoking or obesity, say experts in the medical journal The Lancet, which described physical inactivity as failing to do 30 minutes of moderate physical activity five times a week, 20 minutes of vigorous activity three times a week, or a combination of the two.

Here’s some extra motivation to get off the couch and get in shape: A report in the medical journal The Lancet claims that physical inactivity kills about five million people every year.

“Roughly three of every 10 individuals aged 15 years or older — about 1.5 billion people — do not reach present physical activity recommendations,” experts said in a report that described the problem as a “pandemic.”

The picture for adolescents is even more worrying, with four out of five 13- to 15-year-olds not moving enough, it said.

Physical inactivity was described for the study as failing to do:

1) 30 minutes of moderate physical activity five times a week, or
2) 20 minutes of vigorous activity three times a week, or
3) or a combination of the two.

Inactivity increases with age, is higher in women than in men, and more prevalent in high-income countries, the researchers found.

A second study, comparing physical activity levels with population statistics on diseases like diabetes, heart problems and cancer, said lack of exercise claimed more than 5.3 million of the 57 million deaths worldwide in 2008.
It said inactivity was a risk factor comparable to smoking or obesity.

Lack of exercise causes an estimated six percent of coronary heart disease cases, seven percent of type 2 diabetes (the most common form) and 10 percent of breast and colon cancers, it said.
Reducing inactivity by 10 percent could eliminate more than half a million deaths every year, the report said, adding that the estimates were conservative.
The human body needs exercise to help the bones, muscles, heart and other organs function optimally, but populations are walking, running and cycling less and less as they spend more time in cars and in front of computers, the investigators said.

The Lancet series called for global efforts to promote physical exercise by improving pedestrian and cyclist safety on city roads, for example, more physical education at school or promoting access to free public exercise spaces.
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4.  Physical inactivity causes 1 in 10 deaths worldwide, study says
July 18, 2012, CNN, By Matt Sloane
Pasted from: <http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/18/health/physical-inactivity-deaths/index.html>
Researchers say physical inactivity has become a global pandemic.

 Story Highlights
•  Physical inactivity causes 1 in 10 deaths worldwide, series of studies in Lancet say
• Researchers suggest public health officials treat inactivity as a pandemic
• Inactivity often rises with age and is higher in women as well as in high-income countries
• Studies: Exercise events and better public transportation help improve physical activity

(CNN) — Physical inactivity causes 1 in 10 deaths worldwide, according to a series of studies released in British medical journal The Lancet, putting it on par with the dangers of smoking and obesity. The results also suggest that public health officials treat this situation as a pandemic.
Specifically, Harvard researchers say, inactivity caused an increase in deaths from coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, breast and colon cancers and caused more than 5.3 million deaths in 2008 worldwide.
If physical inactivity rates were to go down by even 10% to 20% worldwide, they say, it could save between a half-million and 1.3 million lives each year. This could also raise global life expectancy by almost a year.

“This summer, we will admire the breathtaking feats of athletes competing in the 2012 Olympic Games,” wrote Dr. I-Min Lee, a Harvard researcher and the lead author of an article accompanying the series of studies. “Although only the smallest fraction of the population will attain these heights, the overwhelming majority of us are able to be physically active at very modest levels, which bring substantial health benefits.”
This series of five studies was specifically timed to be released just days before the start of the 2012 Olympics in London next week, and each of the studies focused on one specific issue related to physical inactivity and its effect on global health.

Adults and children at increased risk
The first in the group of five studies suggested that one-third of adults, and close to 80% of adolescents worldwide, are at increased risk of disease as a result of physical inactivity.
According to the report, some 1.5 billion adults worldwide face a 20% to 30% increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and certain cancers.
Researchers also found that inactivity levels varied widely across the globe, with the lowest levels in Bangladesh (5%) and the highest levels in Malta (71%).
“In most countries, inactivity rises with age and is higher in women than in men [34% vs 28%],” wrote Dr. Pedro C. Hallal, a professor at the Universidade Federal de Pelotas in Brazil. “Inactivity is also increased in high-income countries.”

Why are some people more active?
The second study looked at why certain people and groups of people exercise while others do not.
The study authors found that previous research focused on individual-level factors such as age, sex and socioeconomic status, and they were conducted primarily in high-income countries. But they suggest future research focus on middle and lower-income countries.

“Research has been heavily concentrated in a few developed countries, most of which have stable or falling rates of noncommunicable diseases, rather than in low-income countries where understanding of evidence-based strategies for increasing physical activity is poor,” wrote Adrian Bauman, a researcher from the University of Sydney in Australia. “Targeting factors known to cause inactivity is key to improving and designing effective interventions to increase activity levels.”
Bauman and his colleagues found that health status, being male, young or wealthy tend to make people more physically active, as does family and societal support for physical activity.

What works to promote physical activity
The third article in The Lancet series looked at what specific programs and types of programs work to promote physical activity.
“Because even moderate physical activity such as walking and cycling can have substantial health benefits, understanding strategies that can increase these behaviors in different regions and cultures has become a public health priority,” wrote Gregory Heath, a researcher from the University of Tennessee and the lead author of this study.

Heath and his team found that the use of mass-media campaigns to promote exercise, as well as signs to remind people to be active — taking the stairs, for example — had some effect on getting people more active.
The team also found that free, public exercise events, creating an environment that was conducive to exercise (bike lanes and walking trails), and improving public transportation were more likely to improve physical activity.

“Overall, our findings showed the interventions to have consistent and significant effects on physical activity and behaviors,” Heath wrote. “Even though in some instances the effect sizes of these interventions were rather modest, they were large enough to translate into real population-level benefits if rolled out on a larger scale.”

Using mobile phones to get people active
The fourth study found that technology, and specifically cell phone technology, could be significant in helping people get fit.
“With the high prevalence of both physical inactivity and the rapid growth of the mobile phone sector in low-income and middle-income countries, there is a potential for population-level effects that could truly affect global health,” wrote Dr. Michael Pratt, a researcher from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers believe that with more than 4 billion text messaging users worldwide, this could be an effective way to deliver health-conscious messages, particularly in low-income countries.
According to this report, Pratt and his team estimated that using Internet-based technologies could be twice as effective in middle-income countries as in high-income countries, given that 71% of the world’s population lives in these countries and many have access to cell phones.
“This is a big challenge, but marked progress in countries such as Colombia and Brazil suggests that it is also an achievable challenge,” he wrote.

Obesity should be considered a pandemic
The final report suggests that physical inactivity should be recognized as a global pandemic and should be treated like any other infectious-disease pandemic would be.
“The role of physical inactivity continues to be undervalued despite robust evidence of its protective effects,” wrote Harold Kohl, a researcher at the University of Texas School of Public Health and lead author of this study. “The response … has been incomplete, unfocused and most certainly understaffed. … The effect of this tardiness has been to put physical activity in reverse gear compared with population trends and advances in tobacco and alcohol control and diet.”

Kohl called on countries — low, middle and high-income — to work across disciplines to fix this problem.
“Physical inactivity is an issue that crosses many sectors and will require collaboration, coordination and communication with multiple partners,” he wrote, citing specifically city and community planners, transportation engineers, schools, parks and recreation officials and the media.

He says that almost 75% of World Health Organization member countries have some sort of plan to improve physical activity, but only 55% of the plans have been put into effect and only 42% of the plans in effect are well-funded.
“Substantial improvements in the infrastructure of planning and policy, leadership and advocacy, workforce training and surveillance must be realized,” he said.
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5.  Two out of Three Very Obese Kids Already Have Heart Disease Risk Factors: High Blood Pressure, Cholesterol, Blood Glucose Evident Even in Under-12s
23 July 2012, ScienceDaily,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120723193205.htm

Two out of three severely obese kids already have at least one risk factor for heart disease, suggests research published online in “Archives of Disease in Childhood”.
The prevalence and severity of childhood obesity has been rising worldwide, but little research has been carried out on the underlying health problems that children with severe weight problems have, say the authors.
They base their findings on data supplied by pediatricians to the Dutch Paediatric Surveillance Unit between 2005 and 2007.

During this period, doctors treating all new cases of severe obesity in children from the ages of 2 to 18 across The Netherlands were asked to supply information on their patients’ cardiovascular risk factors, including high blood pressure, fasting blood glucose levels, and blood fats (lipids).
The definition of severe obesity started at a body mass index (BMI) of 20.5 for a 2 year old, at 31 for a 12 year old, and at 35 for an 18 year old.
Over the three years, most (87% to 94%) of pediatricians submitted their monthly findings on every severely obese child they treated to the surveillance unit, providing information on 500 children in all.

When pediatricians were contacted again, with a request for further data, 363 responded and 307 of their children were correctly classified as severely obese.
Just over half (52%) of these 307 children were boys. They tended to be more severely obese at the younger end of the age spectrum; the reverse was true of girls. Full information on cardiovascular risk factors was available for 255 (83%).
Two out of three (67%) had at least one cardiovascular risk factor. Over half (56%) had high blood pressure; a similar proportion (54%) had high levels of low density ‘bad’ cholesterol; one in seven (14%) had high fasting blood glucose; and just under 1 per cent already had type 2 diabetes.

And “remarkably” say the authors, almost two thirds (62%) of those aged 12 and under had one or more cardiovascular risk factors. Only one child’s obesity was attributable to medical rather than lifestyle factors.
Nearly one in three severely obese children came from one parent families.
“The prevalence of impaired fasting glucose in [these children] is worrying, considering the increasing prevalence worldwide of type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents,” write the authors.
“Likewise, the high prevalence of hypertension and abnormal lipids may lead to cardiovascular disease in young adulthood,” they add.
And they conclude: “Internationally accepted criteria for defining severe obesity and guidelines for early detection and treatment of severe obesity and [underlying ill health] are urgently needed.”
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BMJ-British Medical Journal, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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6.  We’re getting sicker: More Americans have a chronic health condition
Vitals on NBCNEWS.com
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/07/31/13053268-were-getting-sicker-more-americans-have-a-chronic-health-condition?lite

MyHealthNewsDaily
More than one in five middle-aged U.S. adults, and nearly half of adults over age 65, have more than one chronic health condition, such as hypertension and diabetes, according to a new government report.
The report said that in 2010, 21.3 percent of women and 20.1 percent of men between ages 45 and 64 had at least two chronic health conditions. In 2000, the rate among men was 15.2 percent, and among women it was 16.9 percent.
Increases were also seen in adults older than 65, with 49 percent of men and 42.5 percent of women reporting in 2010 that they had at least two chronic health conditions. In 2000, the rates were 39.2 percent of men and 35.8 percent of women.

Treatment for people with multiple chronic conditions is complex, the researchers said. By looking at trends in the rates of people with more than one condition, researchers are better able to make decisions about managing and preventing these diseases, and they can make better predictions about future health-care needs, they said.
The increases were due mainly to rises in three conditions: hypertension, diabetes and cancer, according to the report. These increases may be due to more new cases, or due to people living longer with the conditions because of advances in medical treatments.

The report also said that middle-aged adults with at least two chronic conditions had increasing difficulty, between 2000 and 2010, in getting the care and prescription drugs they needed because of cost. In 2010, 23 percent reported not receiving or delaying the medical care they needed, and 22 percent said they didn’t get the prescriptions they needed. In 2000, these rates were 17 percent and 14 percent, respectively.

The CDC does not consider obesity itself to be a health condition; rather, it is a risk factor for other conditions, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. The obesity rate in the U.S. increased in the United States over the past 30 years, but has leveled off in recent years, the report said.
The report is based on data gathered during the National Health Interview Survey, in which participants complete a detailed questionnaire about their health status and health-related behaviors. Participants reported whether a physician has diagnosed them with any of nine chronic health conditions: hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, stroke, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, current asthma and kidney disease.