FITNESS NEGLECT &
INCAPACITATION
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Magandang
gabi sa mga ka-global citizen! Good evening to fellow global citizens!
It’s
now night time as I compose this piece, which is a sequel to the article
written earlier titled “Fitness Program & Capacity-Building.” From capacity-building
impact I now move to incapacitation as a most likely effect of a neglect of
fitness program.
You
see, if you really wish to find out about the incapacity that results from
fitness program neglect, just visit a hospital and inquire from the
epidemiology department whether those who frequent hospitalization have a great
deal to do with the lack of fitness regimen. Fix the age limits to those past
30 years old. Chances are that you’ll get the same answer as you verify the
matter from one hospital to another: neglect of fitness results to health risks
and frequent hospitalization.
Now,
go out to a shopping mall and let your eyes scan the people inside the
building. Make finger counts as to how many overweight persons there are for
every ten (10) shoppers and/or mall visitors. Go up and down the mall, turn
your eyes to the left and right, in front of you and behind you, and you’d
truly get the shock of your life to find out the fact that overweight is a deadweight
reality in today’s fast-paced urban life.
When
I visited the USA America
How
appalling indeed urban life and the rat race have made out of today’s habitués
across the world, with the USA Philippines
The
Department of Health technocrats in Manila
The
absence of a fitness program is truly debilitating, as per my own experience.
So dedicated to my grassroots development work in 1981-82, I neglected my
physical program and resorted to every kind of rationalization for that
neglect. Along the way, I contracted falciparum malaria while doing the rounds
of program monitoring of small towns for my employer (Ministry of Human
Settlements).
The
malaria could have gotten into my veins as early as 1981 yet, but since I was
still fresh out of college then (I jogged and walked a lot till graduation time
in Oct. 1980) the effects of my previous regimen were still working on my
system. Then, came August of 1982, a deadly fever struck me cold turkey that
rendered me pathetically bedridden for over three (3) weeks. I almost died from
that ailment, which was diagnosed as malaria falciparum.
I
had repetitive attacks of the malaria fevers for many months to come, and so I
had to be armed with quinine pills at all times. At one time, in early ’84 (I
was already beginning graduate school), the fever was so high that it knocked
me out unconscious while taking a pee in our apartment’s toilet. I was so lucky
then that my friends and siblings, with whom I shared the apartment unit in Manila
Do
reckon that I was already beginning with a renewed fitness regimen since late
82 yet, but to no avail! See what inroads of a degenerative disease can do that
it can knock you out even if you’re back in the trails of fitness programs. It
took some three (3) more years before my body stabilized completely, and no
more malaria attack came since then.
But
the parasite is with me forever, and I easily chill when the temperature
radically drops in any environment (e.g. airconditioned hall). And I can no
longer donate blood to those in need, since donating would mean transferring
the parasite to the recipient.
My
chilly cryptic experience was my own teacher that wakened me up from my
physical lethargy. I have since mutated into a wellness buff and lifestyle guru
sort-of, even as I continue to re-echo wellness themes whenever the opportunity
permits.
To
add the cryptic facet to that experience, a first cousin of mine, Eroll
Argonza, who was my kababata (childhood playmate) and of identical age, also
suffered from a debilitating disease (typhoid) simultaneous with my own malaria
attack. My cousin tragically failed to make it, died while struggling in the
hospital bed, and was buried when I was just recovering from my own malaria
ailment.
The
death of my cousin, who was a young bank professional then and had a family of
his own (he fathered an only girl child who later graduated from the University
of the Philippines
To
end this note, let me re-echo the challenge that each and every working man and
woman build and sustain a fitness regimen. The overall goal is to capacitate the
person. No one forces fitness regimen unto those emotional morons who are
indifferent to it, fitness is just a mere choice really. Those among us who are
attitudinally smarter should just go ahead and make ourselves physically
smarter and serve as exemplars of smartness by doing instead of talking.
[Philippines
[See: IKONOKLAST: http://erleargonza.blogspot.com,
UNLADTAU: http://unladtau.wordpress.com,
COSMICBUHAY: http://cosmicbuhay.blogspot.com,
BRIGHTWORLD: http://erlefraynebrightworld.wordpress.com,
ARTBLOG: http://erleargonza.wordpress.com,
ARGONZAPOEM: http://argonzapoem.blogspot.com]
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