FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

SEMESTER 1162

MPU3313

HEALTH AND WELLNESS

MATRICULATION NO : 901107025629001

IDENTITY CARD NO. : 901107025629

TELEPHONE NO. : 011 1075 1814

E-MAIL : ikhwan_ishak@oum.edu.my

LEARNING CENTRE : KEDAH LEARNING CENTRE

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Question 1

Obesity is becoming one of the most common health problems globally besides cardiovascular
disease and diabetes. World Health Organization (2016) defines obesity as having Body Mass
Index (BMI) greater or equal to 30. National Health and Morbidity Survey 2015 reported that the
prevalence of obesity was 17.7%, which is higher compared to the previous year. This statistic
alone showed that more people are getting affected by obesity and effective plans should be
made to combat this problem.

Firstly, we should look into the major causes of obesity which include genetics factor, unhealthy
diet and lack of physical activities. For genetics, it is believed that complex interactions among
multiple genes and environmental factors play a role in causing obesity (Bouchard, 2014). Other
studies indicated that there are genes that may increase the risk of obesity by increasing hunger
and appetite. Unhealthy diet is also indentified to play a big role in obesity. Consumption of food
with high calories together with high fat and sugar content is the key component in causing
weight gain which will eventually leads to obesity. Unhealthy diet combined with lack of
exercise will prevent the body to burn off the energy from food consumption. In the end, the
extra energy produced will be stored as fat which then causing obesity in the long run.

Secondly, there are various effects caused by obesity which will be discussed in three groups;
physical, social and psychological effect. For physical effect, obesity is increasing the risk of
having serious health problem including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and
stroke. This will put obese people in danger of early death and also reduced their life expectancy.
For psychological effects, obesity can leads to depression and lower self-esteem. Most obese
people generally lack self confidence due to their physical appearance and continuously
comparing themselves against individual with healthier figure which can negatively affect their
daily life, work performance and social interactions. Lastly, obesity could negatively affect the
social life of an individual. Obese people are more prone to be discriminated and made fun of by

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their peers due to their body weight. As a result, they might have fewer friends to interact with
and their social development might be harmed if it occurs for a long period of time.

Therefore, it is very crucial to indentify the steps to overcome obesity to prevent it from
becoming more serious. The most crucial step is to educate people to eat healthily and control
their eating habit. Obese people should be advised to increase fruits and vegetables intake while
cutting down carbohydrates, fats, sugar and salt content in the daily food intake. Furthermore,
they should also be monitoring the amount of calorie intake and increase the variety of food they
eat. Another key component in fighting obesity is to be physically active and do regular exercise.
Physical activities help the body to burn off the calorie from food consumption and helps in
losing weight. Obese people also need to have a positive mental attitude in order to help them
maintaining healthy lifestyle and reducing stress.

In conclusion, it is clear that obesity is closely related to eating habit and physical activities.
Therefore, those affected by obesity should be educated on how to eat healthily and exercise the
right way. Meanwhile we as the community should encourage them to continue living a healthy
lifestyle and keep on working towards losing weight to achieve a greater quality of life.

(574 words)

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References

Bouchard C. Defining the genetic architecture of the predisposition to obesity: a challenging but
not insurmountable task. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition; 2010; 91:5-6.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2016). Adult obesity causes and
consequences. Retrieved from

https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult/causes.html (Accessed on 10th of July 2016)

Institute for Public Health (IPH) 2015. National Health and Morbidity Survey 2015 (NHMS
2015). Vol. II: NON-COMMUNICABLE DISEASES & OTHER HEALTH PROBLEMS; 2015:
315 Pages. Retrieved from
http://www.iku.gov.my/images/IKU/Document/REPORT/nhmsreport2015vol2.pdf (Accessed on
10th of July 2016)

World Health Organization (WHO). (2016). Obesity. Retrieved from

http://www.who.int/topics/obesity/en/ (Accessed on 10th of July 2016)

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Question 2

Health and wellness are important assets we need towards having a better quality of life. World
Health Organization (2003) defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social
well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. On the other hand, wellness is
defined by National Wellness Institute as an active process through which people become aware
of, and make choices toward, a more successful existence. It involves interaction from multiple
dimensions including physical, social, emotional, spiritual, environmental, occupational,
intellectual and financial dimension.

There are various activities that can be done in order to achieve a greater state of health and
wellness. One of them which greatly influence our health and wellness is through healthy eating
habits and balanced diet. People consume food on a daily basis thus anything that we eat will
greatly determine the outcome of our health and wellness. Healthy diet which includes balanced
meals, eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, low fat, sugar and salt intake and eating on a regular
interval will help us in reducing the risk of getting diseases such as heart disease, high blood
pressure and diabetes. Healthy eating also includes the avoidance of cigarette smoking, alcohol
and the abuse of recreational drugs as they bring harmful effects towards our health and wellness.

Secondly, regular exercise is one of the key activities for us in order to maintain a healthy life.
Ministry of Health Malaysia recommends us to exercise at least three times in a week and each
session should last around thirty minutes for our health benefits. There are various physical
activities that we can enjoy together with our family members. For example speed walking,
jogging, playing sports like badminton and futsal and much more. Regular exercise is proven to
be beneficial to our health which includes losing weight, reduces the risk of chronic disease,
reducing stress and improves our mood. Therefore, we should motivate ourselves and our family
to exercise regularly for our own benefits.

Thirdly, we should learn on how to manage our stress in order to achieve a good health and
wellness. Uncontrolled stress has negative impacts to our health like increasing our blood
pressure, causing depression, sleeping difficulty and impairs our social interactions. While it is

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impossible for us to avoid getting stress in our everyday life, it is still possible to control it
through activities like meditation, doing exercise and socializing with people. Last but not least,
maintaining a positive thinking will always help us to achieve a better health and wellness.
Having positive thinking would make us have more confidence in ourselves and motivate us to
work harder to achieve our goals in life.

In conclusion, it is not easy for us to achieve an ideal state of health and wellness as it covers
various health dimensions. However, we should always be motivated to move towards that goal
by engaging ourselves with different kind of activities that are beneficial towards or health and
wellness. It is not easy to reach the goals we wanted but it is possible if we and our family
members keep encouraging and reminding each other.

(519 words)

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References

Mayo Clinic. (2016). Exercise: 7 benefits of regular physical activity.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise/art-20048389 (Acessed on
20th of July 2016)

National Wellness Institute. (2016). Definition of wellness. Retrieved from

http://www.nationalwellness.org/?page=Six_Dimensions (Acessed on 20th of July 2016)

WebMD. (2016). The Effects of Stress on Your Body. http://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-

management/effects-of-stress-on-your-body (Acessed on 20th of July 2016)

World Health Organization. (2003). WHO definition of health. Retrieved from

http://www.who.int/about/definition/en/print.html

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Question 3

Health and wellness is an important aspect for individual to properly function in daily life. Two
of the most important health dimensions which allow us to be productive include physical and
intellectual dimensions. Physical dimension refers to the aspects affecting the body condition
which involves healthy diet, regular exercise and avoiding harmful substances. Meanwhile,
intellectual dimension covers the ability to process information, problem solving skills and
making decision.

Firstly, there are several ways for us to maintain a healthy physical dimension. One of them is
through regular physical exercises. By engaging in physical activities on a regular basis, any
individual could achieve the state of physical fitness. Being physically fitness means that we can
perform our daily routine safely and effectively. For example, a physically fit individual is able
to climb a flight of stairs without any struggle while an unfit one would need to stop to breath
multiple times and would have sore muscles afterwards. In order to achieve this, we need to
involve ourselves in activities such as a systematic cardiovascular workout, running and various
sports such as football, badminton, rugby, netball and others. Doing regular exercise will not
only make us physically stronger and fit but also highly beneficial in reducing the risk of getting
diseases like heart disease, obesity and high blood pressure. In addition, we should control our
eating habit and diet in order to achieve a good physical wellness. We should consume food
based on the energy recommendation needed by our body so that we have sufficient amount of
energy to carry out our daily work while avoiding excessive calorie intake which could lead to
obesity. The food we consume should also contain the necessary amount of nutrients required by
the body as recommended by the food pyramid. Last but not least, avoiding cigarette smoking,
alcohol intake and recreational drugs would further help us achieving an ideal physical health
and wellness.

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Secondly, in order to maintain a healthy intellectual aspects there are several ways which could
be done. One of them is to continuously developing creativity and engaging ourselves with
creative programs. This could be done in various ways like visiting art museums and
participating in art classes. Art is always associated with creativity and doing activities like
drawing, writing poets and sculpting will stimulate the brain to be more creative. Intellectual
wellness also could be further enhanced through activities that require comprehension and
information processing such as reading. Reading is regarded as one of the best way to keep the
mind healthy and there is various form of publications available ranging from novel to scientific
journal. We should always read a variety of books in order to broaden our perspective and
knowledge. For example, our reading materials should not only include the field we are currently
working or studying in but also general topics such as politics, economics and sports. This will
not only benefit us intellectually but also socially as we have more topics of conversation with
our peers and family members.

In conclusion, it is important for us to maintain healthy physical and intellectual dimensions

while not abandoning the remaining dimensions. Those individual that are able to balance all
these dimensions well are the ones that could achieve a complete wellness and becoming a
productive individual.

(545 words)

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References

Hettler, B. (1976). The six dimensions of wellness. Retrieved from

http://www.nationalwellness.org/?page=Six_Dimensions

Payne, W. A., Hahn, D. B., & Mauer, E. B. (2005). Understanding your health (8th
ed). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. (2016) Intellectual health.

http://medicine.uams.edu/faculty/current-faculty/faculty-wellness-program/intellectual-wellness/
(Accessed on 20th of July 2016)

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Question 4

Occupational wellness plays an important role towards an individual performance at his

workplace. Occupational wellness is defined as the ability to achieve a balance between work
and leisure time, addressing workplace stress and building relationships with co-workers
(University Of California Riverside, 2016). It involves several factors such as personal
satisfaction, career ambitions and work performances. It is very important to maintain a good
occupational wellness as it has great impacts towards an individual’s career. There are several
ways which can enhance our occupational wellness.

Firstly, to achieve a better occupational wellness, an individual needs to choose a career that is
suitable with his interests, personal value and beliefs. Having a high interest on a certain career is
very crucial for an individual to stay within the same field for a long period of time. Being
interested in a job would also motivate an individual to have career development and producing
high quality work. The same thing could be said to personal value and beliefs. A clash of career
requirement with someone’s value or beliefs would hinder the individual from having a decent
work performance. In a long run, the work itself might affect the personal value and beliefs in a
negative way and lead to major career dissatisfaction.

Secondly, we should always find a good balance between work and personal life. Other than
working, human needs time for different aspects of life including socializing with family and
friends and doing recreational activities. In this aspect, a good time management is the key
towards having high work performance while having time to enjoy life with family. At work, we
should always fully concentrate so that we are able to finish our job in time while producing a
high quality of performance. Outside working hours, we should divide our time wisely between
spending it with our family and for personal activities such as enjoying our hobbies. A good
balance between these two is also the key in managing stress caused by the work demands.

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Thirdly, to achieve occupational wellness we need to identify our own strength and weakness
regarding our career. Knowing your own strength would help yourself gaining self confidence
and also allow yourself to utilize the strength to help your peers. On the other side, knowing your
weakness allow you to seek help or advice from your peers and this will allow you to improve
yourself and potentially avoid making mistake that would cost you and your company. This will
encourage the workers to work in co-operation in order to cover each other weakness and
promotes a harmony in a workplace. Last but not least, an individual should always seek
professional development opportunities. Always be the one to participate in workshops or
courses which will help you reaching a higher level in your career and enhance your working
skills.

In conclusion, balance is the keyword for us in order to achieve occupational wellness between
our career and personal life. Having a suitable career which allows us to develop ourselves will
lead to a job satisfaction and boost our confidence while having an adequate time to spend for
family and personally are the tools to manage work-related stress.

(527 words)

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References

Payne, W. A., Hahn, D. B., & Mauer, E. B. (2005). Understanding your health (8th
ed). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

University of California Riverside. 2016. Occupational Wellness. Retrieved from

https://wellness.ucr.edu/occupational_wellness.html (Accessed on 20th of July 2016)

World Health Organization (WHO). (1994). Global strategy on occupational

health for all: The way to health at work. Retrieved from
http://www.who.int/occupational_health/publications/globstrategy/en/

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Question 5

Diabetes is becoming one of the leading chronic diseases in Malaysia. World Health
Organization (2014) defines chronic disease as non-communicable (doesn’t pass from person to
person), having long duration and progress slowly. While there are two types of diabetes in
classification, our focus will be on type-2 diabetes. Diabetes Malaysia (2006) defines type-2
diabetes as metabolic disorder resulting from the body's inability to make enough or properly use
insulin. It is highly related to people with family history of diabetes, unhealthy diet, obese people
and physically inactive individuals.

Now we are going to look at the lifestyle habits that might be the cause of diabetes. One of the
major causes of diabetes is obesity and physical inactivity. A lot of studies have shown that
obesity is one of the major risk factor for type-2 diabetes. Obese people usually do not manage
their diet well and have excessive caloric intake. Their diets are usually consisting of food with
high calories, high fat, sugar and salt content and also lack of fruits and vegetables. This
combined with the lack of exercise will slowly causing them to gain more weight and eventually
becoming obese. Without regular physical activities, the body has no other way to burn off the
calories and losing weight. Being in this condition does not only expose themselves to a high risk
to type-2 diabetes but also other diseases such as heart disease and high blood pressure.

Another lifestyle factor that is related to type-2 diabetes is having a high fasting blood sugar
level. Fasting blood sugar is the measurement of your sugar level in blood after you have not
eaten for at least 8 hours. It is the usual initial test done to check for diabetes. High blood sugar
level is usually caused by eating food with high sugar content and again lack of physical
activities. Unhealthy diet which consists of food with high sugar content contributes to the high
fasting blood sugar. This can leads to symptoms like frequent urination, increased thirst, easily
fatigued and headache. Lack of exercise also plays a role in this situation. When we are doing
exercise, the body is utilizing the sugar in our blood as a source of energy. Therefore, people

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who are not physically active will have the sugar in their blood unused and the level would
slowly rise.

In conclusion, it is clear that the lifestyle that we choose plays a big role to determine whether
we are at high risk of getting type-2 diabetes or not. Unlike type-1 diabetes, the causes for type-2
diabetes can be prevented and controlled if we follow the guidelines from the health
professionals. The key points regarding this matter lie in our eating habit and physical activity.
Therefore, we should try our best to maintain a healthy diet together with having regular
exercise .This will not only benefits us in reducing the risk of getting type-2 diabetes cure but
also other related diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney disease and stroke.

(500 words)

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References

Diabetes Malaysia. 2006. What is Diabetes? http://www.diabetes.org.my/article.php?aid=5

(Accessed on 20th of July 2016)

Medscape. 2016. Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus. Retrieved from

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/117853-overview#showall (Accessed on 20th of July
2016)

NHS. 2016. Type-2 Diabetes – Cause. Retrieved from http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Diabetes-

type2/Pages/Causes.aspx (Accessed on 20th of July 2016)

World Health Organization. 2014. Non-communicable disease. Retrieved from

http://www.who.int/topics/noncommunicable_diseases/en/ (Accessed on 20th of July 2016)

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