Review Article
Year: 2022 | Month: July-September | Volume: 7 | Issue: 3 | Pages: 120-129
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijshr.20220719
Accurate Interpretation of Stability of Human Health and Ageing Trajectory through a Single Objective Measure of Homeostasis
R.Vinodh Rajkumar
Medical Anthropologist, Physiotherapist & Gerontologist. Director - Prabhanjeet Vitalityarium. Rajapalayam – 626117 Tamilnadu.
ABSTRACT
Health stability is directly proportional to homeostatic stability. Overall efficiency of our body, both at rest and during physical activity, is the product of homeostasis. Human body is a magnificent interconnection and collaboration of various specialized cells and organs, capable of naturally obstructing and overcoming diseases with optimal survival competence. Homeostasis at rest and during exercise are mutually dependent/benefitting physiology that ensure and enhance the stability of human health and healthy ageing trajectory. Homeostasis enables us to withstand even major dysfunctions or disabilities by virtue of its individual-specific adaptability to unexpected challenges to survive. On the other hand, homeostasis has been almost a completely forgotten fundamental of physiology in all the aspects of health care. Numerous diagnostic tests have been available to assess multiple physiologic parameters but quite often the results of each test are not unified to interpret the homeostatic condition of the individuals. Probably, this non-homeostatic approach to deal with human health and diseases led to pathogenic orientation instead of salutogenic orientation to move in a health-promoting direction as viewed by Aaron Antonovsky. Homeostasis cannot be understood solely by examining the functions of human body in resting conditions, thus, testing of homeostatic efficiency through structured and customized physical activity becomes crucial. Man has discovered precision units to measure overall efficiency of various machines, but astonishingly not yet a single objective measure for the overall efficiency of his body. Individual-specific longitudinal evaluation of the overall homeostatic efficiency of healthy and unhealthy individuals on the basis of exercise performance still remains as an under-developed domain in medical profession. This article attempts to (i) validate the importance of accurately interpreting the stability and instability of human health and ageing trajectory using ‘exercise performance’, and (ii) establish ‘Tolerating Increasable Measurable Exercises - (TIME)’ as the most credible and indispensable objective measure of homeostasis.
Keywords: Homeostasis, Exercise Physiology, Exercise Tolerance, Exercise Performance