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Mental Vs Physical Health
2
Mental Vs Physical Health
Logan Parsons
Intro Allied Health
December 3rd, 2021
Introduction
The topic I have chosen to study is the link between mental and physical health. I'm choosing this topic because mental health has always been a sensitive subject in my family, which has led to many, more physical issues. I'd like to research possible connections between both mental and physical health to not only better myself, but my friends and family around me. An element of this topic that interests me greatly, is whether one effects more than the other.
Process
My process of researching this topic started with me brainstorming ideas I was truly interested in. After a fair amount of time contemplating ideas, I had decided that the topic of Mental vs Physical health intrigued me the most. I spent over a week collecting and ciphering through good sources and information to put my piece together. I had taken information regarding both mental and physical health, and started to put the pieces together, comparing and contrasting them. I had also spent a lot of time discussing with my peers on their opinions, sharing my own, and ultimately decided on creating a prezi to showcase my knowledge.
Questions
When beginning my project, I had a few questions I Knew I wanted to answer. These being: If I wanted to better my mental health, would physical activity help me achieve that? On the other hand, if I wanted to better myself physically, would a healthy mental state help me accomplish that? Out of those two questions, which would affect me more, physical to help mental, or mental to help physical?
Mental Health
Point 1
There's a difference between mental health and mental illness. According to MD, Christopher M Palmer, “The term ‘mental health’ implies the absence of illness or disorder. But there are a lot of ways people can be mentally healthy or ill, just like there are many ways to be physically healthy or unwell.”
Mental Health affects everything from how we feel and think to how we physically act. It has always been undermined when compared to physical health, but I think it is just as important. I believe this because mental health involves our psychological, social, as well as our emotional well-being. A person’s mental health can be affected by (but not limited to): biological variables, trauma, and even a history of mental health issues in the family. Mental health problems are also not as easily detectable, and often are left untreated or disregarded as “not important".
Physical Health
Point 2
Physical Health affects aspects like diet, weight, hygiene and even sleep. Much like mental health, physical health is much different than physical illness. Although having poor physical health can directly cause physical illnesses such as diabetes and cancer. It’s extremely important to maintain proper physical health, because not only can it lead to long term physical affects, but long term mental ones as well. Good news, is that the opposite is also true. According to Harvard Health Publishing, Dr Miller states “In people who are depressed, scientists have noticed that the hippo-campus in the brain—the region that helps regulate mood—is smaller. Exercise supports nerve cell growth in the hippo-campus, improving nerve cell connections, which helps relieve depression”. This being said, maintaining good physical health can directly improve ones mental health.
Connections
Real Life examples:
One suffering from depression is seen to have a poor mental health, and this mental illness can affect one physically via their digestive system, headaches, drowsiness etc.
Point 3
Its thought that the mind and body are separate, that they both affect us, just in different ways. While parts of this may be true, your mind and body are more connected than you think. According to the Mental Health Foundation, “Nearly one in three people with a long-term physical health condition also has a mental health problem, most often depression or anxiety”. Many different variables can cause ones mental health to affect them physically, these could be anything as complicated as genetics, to something simple like ones motivation. Mental health can affect your energy, your mood, and behavior. These variables are also known to affect your physical health, via concentration, motivation, and attitude.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Over the course of this semester, collecting information, and writing down my own ideas. I'm finally able to answer the questions I had asked myself in the beginning. These being between mental and physical health, which one seems more important, and which one affects the other the most. I have come to the conclusion that physical and mental health work with each other, and that they should be seen more as a collective than individual. Poor mental mental health can cause poor physical health and vise-versa, with the same is true about good health. Poor physical health can cause poor mental health, but good physical health also has the chance of helping you with poor mental health. They work with each other, they improve together, and they decline together.
Work Cited
Kolappa, K., Henderson, D. C., & Kishore, S. P. (2013, January 1). No Physical Health Without Mental Health: Lessons Unlearned? Bulletin of the World Health Organization. Retrieved December 11, 2021, from https://www.scielosp.org/article/bwho/2013.v91n1/3-3a/en/.
The authors of this cite include Kavitha Kolappa; David C Henderson; Sandeep P Kishore. These people are experts on this topic because they are professionals in healthcare. I know this source is credible, because the authors referenced their information, making sure everything can be traced back to its source. This source gives me direct information on how physical health can affect mental health, and vise versa. I find some of the statistics offered within this source very interesting to look at and think about.
2.
Prince, M., Patel, V., Saxena, S., Maj, M., Maselko, J., Phillips, M. R., & Rahman, A. (2007, September 4). No health without mental health. The Lancet. Retrieved December 11, 2021, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673607612380.
Authors of this source are stated with their credentials; Prof Martin Prince MD, Prof Vikram Patel PhD, Shekhar Saxena MD, Prof Mario Maj PhD, Joanna Maselko ScD, Prof Michael R Phillips MD, Atif Rahman PhD. I know this source is credible because the authors took the time to hyperlink related articles for the reader, and left their references open to be checked. This source goes into depth describing how mental health can physically open you up to be more prone to disease. This source offered some solutions to this, which I found interesting to read.
3Linn, M. W., Sandifer, R., & Stein, S. (n.d.). AJPH178020 177725 1029. - ajph.aphapublications.org. Unemployment on Mental and Physical health. Retrieved December 11, 2021, from https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.2009.177725?download=true.
The authors of this source and their credentials include MARGARET W. LINN, PHD, RICHARD SANDIFER, BS, and SHAYNA STEIN, PHD. I know this source is credible because they referenced over 40 sources at the end of the paper. This source was interesting because it actually related mental and physical health to unemployment rates and how this link can affect ones personal life on a different level.
4.
panelJuliusOhrnbergeraEleonoraFicherabMattSuttona, A. links open overlay, JuliusOhrnberger, EleonoraFicher, & MattSuttona. (2017, November 8). The relationship between physical and mental health: A mediation analysis. Social Science & Medicine. Retrieved December 11, 2021, from https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0277953617306639?token=0E021B3DCF52F0D3FC64861C044BE8CB94CDBBFB1DEADD8AD93D4EB946B05050CD0BC82943959AD7145D477A92C8A3A8&originRegion=us-east-1&originCreation=20211021233427.
The authors of this source are Julius Ohrnberger, Eleonora Fichera and Matt Sutton. This source is credible because all their sources are referenced, and their information used is relatively recent. This source is useful and interesting to me because it offers a different perspective on how these are linked. This paper talks about how mental health affects your physical health through decision making, and their impaired ability to access information on their health, and their healthcare providers.
5.
Hillside. (2020, October 28). How mental health and physical health are linked. Hillside. Retrieved December 11, 2021, from https://hside.org/link-between-physical-and-mental-health/.
This piece was written by Hillside INC, a mental health service in Atlanta, Georgia. This source is credible because it was directly written from a mental health service, and offer their own contact information. I found this piece useful and interesting because it offered me information on how to improve both my mental and physical health together, utilizing that link. Along with giving solid bullet points on how they are related. Their information is easily understandable and laid out for the reader.
6.
What is mental health? What Is Mental Health? | MentalHealth.gov. (n.d.). Retrieved December 11, 2021, from https://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/what-is-mental-health.
This source is credible because it is a government run website. It has frequent links relating more information. I found this article useful because it helped me get a simpler sense and good definition on what mental health actually was, and how it could affect poeple.
7. Yes, There Is a Big Difference Between Mental Health and Mental Illness | McLean Hospital. (2021, January 3). Retrieved December 11, 2021, from https://www.mcleanhospital.org/essential/yes-there-big-difference-between-mental-health-and-mental-illness.
This source is credible because it is affiliated with Harvard Medical. It was useful because it offered me good information on what mental illness was compared to overall mental health. It helped me define a difference so I could further my project with accurate information.
8.
Exercise is an all-natural treatment to fight depression. Harvard Health. (2021, February 2). Retrieved December 11, 2021, from https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/exercise-is-an-all-natural-treatment-to-fight-depression.
This source is credible because it is also associated with Harvard Medical. I foundn it useful because it provided a strong example of how physical health can improve mental health. It related them in a way I found extremely useful for my own project.