Con­nell Lord

There’s no bet­ter way to kick­start 2024 than with well­ness in mind. So many times, we have heard the state­ment, “Your health is your wealth,” but it re­mains on­ly an in­ac­tive thought for some of us. Sim­ply put, our lev­el of phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty should be at a dif­fer­ent lev­el. Ac­cord­ing to the World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion (2022), 1.4 bil­lion adults do not meet the rec­om­mend­ed lev­els of phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty to im­prove and pro­tect their health .

The use of tech­nol­o­gy has con­tributed to de­creased phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty and in­creased seden­tary lifestyles. What is a seden­tary lifestyle, you may ask? It is where the in­di­vid­ual is in­volved in in­suf­fi­cient phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty or low en­er­gy ex­pen­di­ture be­cause of pro­longed seden­tary pe­ri­ods.

At some point, we all may be guilty of these seden­tary habits di­rect­ly or in­di­rect­ly; we sit at our work desks, watch our favourite Net­flix se­ries for long hours, or are forced to tol­er­ate long com­mutes com­pound­ed by snail-paced traf­fic. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, some of us as par­ents con­tribute to our chil­dren’s seden­tary lifestyles.

Be­fore the evo­lu­tion of tech­nol­o­gy, it was com­mon­place for chil­dren and adults to en­gage in phys­i­cal move­ments as part of their leisure ac­tiv­i­ties. How­ev­er, the sweep­ing ‘tech­no­log­i­cal­i­sa­tion’ of our so­cial and per­son­al lives has more or less re­sult­ed in de­creased phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty, as we gift our chil­dren with more de­vices such as video games, smart­phones, or com­put­ers rather than bi­cy­cles, skate­boards, roller skates, jump ropes, or even foot­balls. Such pas­sive de­vices act as “babysit­ters”, where young­sters and adults are phys­i­cal­ly in­ac­tive for long pe­ri­ods.

Con­se­quences of

an in­ac­tive lifestyle

An in­ac­tive lifestyle comes with con­se­quences for our chil­dren and adults. For chil­dren, a seden­tary lifestyle can lead to a host of prob­lems. First and fore­most, there’s an in­creased risk of child­hood obe­si­ty. Lack of phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty and poor di­etary habits con­tribute to this grow­ing health con­cern.

The Caribbean Pub­lic Health Agency (CARPHA) has shown that the Caribbean stands out for hav­ing some of the high­est rates of over­weight and obe­si­ty in the Amer­i­c­as. No­tably, there is a con­cern­ing rise in over­weight and obe­si­ty lev­els among chil­dren aged 5-9 years in Cari­com coun­tries. In­ac­tive chil­dren may ex­pe­ri­ence high­er lev­els of stress, anx­i­ety, and even de­pres­sion. In ad­di­tion, in­ac­tiv­i­ty may al­so con­tribute to low­er lev­els of aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ment.

For the adults, the con­se­quences are equal­ly alarm­ing. One of the most im­me­di­ate is­sues is weight gain and the as­so­ci­at­ed health risks like di­a­betes and car­dio­vas­cu­lar (heart-re­lat­ed) dis­eases. Both men and women be­come less ac­tive as they age, as shown across the Caribbean. It means that as adults, in­ac­tiv­i­ty ac­cel­er­ates mus­cle loss and weak­ens bones, mak­ing in­di­vid­u­als more sus­cep­ti­ble to frac­tures and in­juries. Most times, re­search has shown that be­ing in­ac­tive can con­tribute to breast and colon can­cers, which de­creas­es the prob­a­bil­i­ty of liv­ing a longer and health­i­er lifes­pan.

Ac­tive lifestyle ad­van­tage

How­ev­er, be­ing phys­i­cal­ly ac­tive brings many ben­e­fits. The World Health Or­gan­i­sa­tion rec­om­mends that, as adults, we do at least 150 min­utes of mod­er­ate-in­ten­si­ty ac­tiv­i­ty or 75 min­utes of vig­or­ous-in­ten­si­ty ac­tiv­i­ty a week. Do­ing vig­or­ous in­ten­si­ty ac­tiv­i­ty means per­form­ing ex­er­cis­es in short bursts of phys­i­cal ex­er­tion fol­lowed by pe­ri­ods of rest, which helps pro­mote car­dio­vas­cu­lar fit­ness, strength, and en­durance.

There­fore, reg­u­lar phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty yields many ben­e­fits for phys­i­cal and men­tal well-be­ing. It pro­motes car­dio­vas­cu­lar health by im­prov­ing cir­cu­la­tion, re­duc­ing the risk of heart dis­eases, and help­ing pre­vent chron­ic con­di­tions like di­a­betes and cer­tain can­cers. It al­so as­sists in man­ag­ing weight loss and the risk of obe­si­ty. Phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty al­so re­sults in mus­cu­lar strength and flex­i­bil­i­ty, im­prov­ing over­all phys­i­cal func­tion.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, reg­u­lar ex­er­cise typ­i­cal­ly acts as a po­ten­tial stress re­liev­er. It en­cour­ages the brain to re­lease en­dor­phins, which helps com­bat anx­i­ety and de­pres­sion reg­u­lar­ly. Like­wise, reg­u­lar ex­er­cise is linked to im­proved cog­ni­tive func­tion, boost­ing mem­o­ry and con­cen­tra­tion, which can re­sult in high­er aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance.

Min­is­ter of Health Ter­rence Deyals­ingh con­tin­ues to cham­pi­on the call for Trin­bag­o­ni­ans to be phys­i­cal­ly ac­tive through the Min­istry’s TTMoves ini­tia­tive. How­ev­er, the de­ci­sion to stay ac­tive or not re­sides with every­one. Just as the New Year sig­nals a fresh start, it’s a re­minder to kick off the year, 2024, right by em­brac­ing phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty.

SDG 3: A glob­al call

for well-be­ing

The Unit­ed Na­tions Sus­tain­able De­vel­op­ment Goal 3 calls for a world­wide fo­cus on “Good Health and Well-be­ing”. The goal aims to pro­mote healthy lives and well-be­ing for every­one at all ages by ad­dress­ing var­i­ous health chal­lenges, pre­vent­ing dis­eases, and en­sur­ing ac­cess to qual­i­ty health­care ser­vices. We will con­tribute to a broad­er vi­sion of glob­al well-be­ing through ac­tive par­tic­i­pa­tion.

There­fore, as we em­bark on a new year, let’s make 2024 a year of health and well­ness. Let’s make that per­son­al com­mit­ment to a lifestyle of be­ing phys­i­cal­ly ac­tive. Let us make a pow­er­ful de­c­la­ra­tion to our­selves and the world as Trin­bag­o­ni­ans and Caribbean peo­ple that our well-be­ing mat­ters. Drink­ing more wa­ter, eat­ing fruits, ex­er­cis­ing, or par­tic­i­pat­ing in a 5K race, for ex­am­ple, is the kind of mind­set and habit that we need to adopt if we want a health­i­er and bet­ter qual­i­ty of life. So, cheers to a new year, a new chap­ter, and a health­i­er, more ac­tive jour­ney for our­selves, our fam­i­lies, and as Caribbean peo­ple.

Con­nell Lord BSc, MSc, is the Se­nior Ad­min­is­tra­tive As­sis­tant with re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for Ac­counts at the St Au­gus­tine Acad­e­my of Sport. He is pur­su­ing an MPhil Sport Stud­ies in the Fac­ul­ty of Sport, UWI.