UGC Sponsored National Conference – Health and Life Style
The department of Physical Education, Union Christian College, Aluva is organizing a UGC sponsored three day National Conference on “Health and Life style” on 5th,6th and 7th March 2015.
CONFERENCE THEME:
Health and Life Style
Conference Sub – themes:
- Health and Lifestyle Diseases from Child hood to Old age.
- Exercise strategies for various age groups.
- Exercise and enhanced childhood development
- Exercise and Physiological Wellbeing
- Exercise and psychological wellbeing
- Yoga and Health
- Food,Nutrition and Health
- Health and Fitness
- Societal and Lifestyle shifts
- Issues in Public and Community Health
- Youth Sport and Youth HealthGuidelines for Paper Presentation
- No paper will be accepted without registration fees.Howeever, spot registration is available. Acceptance of the papers is subject to review.Final form of paper not exceeding 3000 words should be send by 5th Feburary 2015.Research papers are invited from expert,teachers,scholars and students on the listed themes .The selected papers will be published in book form with ISBN.Essential format for paper writingContributors are requested to send abstract (not more than 250 words ) along with full paper (3000 words) on or before 5th feburary 2015.Paper size : A4.Paper should be typed only in MS Word.Contributor : Name,institutional address,email id and Font size(English) – 12.Line spacing 1.5.Important datesSubmission of abstract with full paper and D.D. 5th February 2015.The abstract and full paper should be sent to the following email address. uccncpe15@gmail.comREPORTThe three day UGC Sponsored National Conference on Health and Life style, 5-7 March 2015, Union Christian College, Aluva was convened by the Department of Physical Education, UC College, Aluva in association with the Jeevadhara Renal Care Foundation, Angamally,from March 5-7,2015.Lifestyle diseases are one of the growing and alarming concerns for healthcare providers not only in the developed nations but also among developing nations commonly known as the Third World Nations, more particularly in the South East Asian Region. According to Census 2011, health statistics in Kerala state by Indus Health Plus (P) Ltd, 20% of all deaths in Kerala are caused by coronary heart disease (CHD/CAD). The risk of developing these diseases depend on a lot of factors including the type of work you do, your work environment, physical activity and your susceptibility to stress. Other contributing factors include poor posture, kind of foods you eat and poor sleeping habits.
The good news is that lifestyle diseases can be prevented by making simple changes in daily routine and following a healthier way of living. Few basic changes include quitting smoking, avoiding alcohol, having a balanced diet that includes fresh vegetables and fruits, regular physical activity and leading a stress-free life.
The conference aimed to bring different role players together to promote community and social, wellness and health aspects through scientific evidence around the theme “HEALTH AND LIFE STYLE“. The multidisciplinary conference was aimed at academic and practitioner audiences who would address physiological and psychological mechanisms, interventions and responses to sport, exercise and physical activities.
The conference highlighted the major life style diseases that are linked to ones occupation as well as the way one lives and suggested practical changes that one has to make to lead a healthy lifestyle.
Thus the National Conference aimed at:
- Bringing the different role players together to promote community health trough scientific evidence.
- Identifying the basic principles, methods and strategies for developing healthy and active life style.
- Sharing the experiences, challenges and technical knowledge regarding various ways to build the healthy body.
- Disseminating knowledge about present lifestyle diseases and its harmful effects.
The national conference was formally inaugurated on 5th March 2015 at 11.30 a.m by Dr.P.Pugazhandi, IFS, Chief Conservator of Forest & Director,(Addl.Charge), Directorate of Sports and YouthAffairs, Govt. of Kerala. Prof.Anil Thomas Koshy, Convener gave the welcome address and the programme was presided over by Dr.A.Benny Cherian (Principal,UCC) and who gave presidential address. Dr.Raju.K.John (Manager,UCC) delivered the managers message.Dr.Tony Daniel (Chairman Technical Committee,AFI) and Sri.Saju Menancheril (Chairman – Jeevadhara Renal Care Foundation) felicitated the gathering.The vote of thanks was proposed by Dr.Bindu.M,Organizing Secretrary.
The first keynote speaker of the conference was Dr.Jayashree Acharya (Head-Sport Psychology,LNIPE,Gwalior) on “Self encouragement for life Style Management to Avoid Diseases”.She highlighted how one has to be self motivated to do the right things at the right time to maintain a healthy body. Madam made a true suggestion that if one wants to make truly lasting health changes, they have to be a complete lifestyle change, not just a diet. The Wellness Lifestyle isn’t about a temporary diet to lose weight or simply accomplish an aesthetic goal (though it may help with that) but a true lifestyle change focuses on nourishing and strengthening your body from the inside out. Lifestyle choices are responsible for nearly 90% of health outcomes thus avoiding disease.
“Life style the mission 25 by 25” was a thought provoking and highly interactive session by Dr S Sivasankaran Prof of cardiology Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology Thiruvananthapuram. He stressed on the alarming rise of life style related diseases in the present world. As per the statistics 2/3 diseases of the present world originates through life style of the people. Immediate life style modification is the only remedy to get rid of this menace. Four life style factors which contribured mainly to these diseases are tobacco use alcohol use physical inactivity and an unhealthy diet. The session focused on unhealthy food occupying centre stage in many families in Kerala; physical inactivity among students in Kerala schools and the rampage tobacco and alcohol creates in the society.Doctor also emphasised on personal intervention and behaviour modification to get rid of these threatful diseases and to live a healthy and quality life.This session was chaired by Dr.Augustine George.
Dr.Shailaja Mohan-Resource Person
Dr.Shailaja Mohan (Head, Dept of Sport Psychology, LNCPE, Trivandrum) on “Exercise and Psychological Wellbeing”. This was very interesting session on how physical activity boosts psychological wellbeing. She gave a clear cut idea with research findings that exercise improves mental health by reducing anxiety, depression, and negative mood and by improving self-esteem and cognitive function. Exercise has also been found to alleviate symptoms such as low self-esteem and social withdrawal. Regular exercise has been shown to be related to changes in mood states such as decrease in fatigue and anger and increase in vigour, alertness and energy. These positive changes are maximized with low intensity exercise, which can be either aerobic or anaerobic. This session was chaired by Dr.Seena Mathai.
Dr.Usha Sujith Nair
Resource Person
Dr.Usha Sujith Nair (Associate Professor, SAI, LNCPE, Trivandrum) “Physical Activity and Health outcomes in Women”. A truly interactive session focused mainly on the women empowerment through exercise.She focused on the point that women should be educated regarding the health problems that result from inactivity, poor nutrition, and lack of self- care- such issues as obesity, heart disease, diabetes. We need to get women moving, make her independent to carry her daily routines by herself, make her confident to move thus leading to an improved quality of life. We need to emphasize that our nation’s health is in part in the hands of our women. The third and fourth sessions was chaired by Dr.Syna Susan Abhraham.The fifth technical session was taken by Dr.Jaideep.C.Menon “Life Style factors in Cad & Hypertension” He educated us with the fact that WHO projections shows that NCD death are projected to increase by 15% globally between 2010mand 2020 (to 44 million deaths) . The greatest increases will be in the WHO regions of Africa, South-East Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean, where they will increase by over 20%. The major risk for this global raise in NCDs is unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyle. This session was chaired by Dr.Seena Mathai.
The sixth technical session was taken by Dr.K.Chandrasekharan, Head, Dept of Physical Education, Madurai Kamaraj University based on the topic “Yoga for Healthy Life in Modern Age”. It was a very enlightening class regarding yoga and Pranayama. He had given a clear cut message that how yoga is beneficial to a mankind as it enables them to strengthen their concentration ability foster calm and relaxed mind, enhance the mind / body connection allowing the person to have greater muscle coordination and fluidity of movement. Yoga is also beneficial to a professional people as it positively contributes to the health and vitality of the body, strengthens internal organs such as the heart, lungs and liver and helps to maintain fitness and agility. Yoga also helps to reduce stress and anxiety, cultivate self confidence and self-belief. Ultimately it brings down the equilibrium state in the body and mind by enhancing the sympathetic and para-sympathetic activations in the body. All of these elements are pivotal to maintain good health and fitness. The systematic yogic practices would make the homeostasis in the body systems as well as the enhancing nature of the body, mind co-ordination the human behavior and thoughts are regulated. It will induce good life style modifications in the mind based on this every man can enjoy the happiness within us in their life time.
The Seventh technical session was delivered by Dr.Binu Arreckal on the topic “Life Style and Cancer”,He educated us on the various types of cancer and how cancer should be treated in early stages.This session was chaired by Dr.Ajith Mohan.
FEW SNAPS FROM PAPER PRESENTATIONS
Dr.Ranjith Kanjur
There was two paper presentation sessions on 5th and 6th march 2015.In total the organizing committee received 29 papers.out of which 18 papers were presented in the conference by the scholars from Kerala and also from Tamil Nadu.
The three day national conference came to end on 7th March 2015; the chief guest for the valedictory function was Prof.Edwin Joseph.The chief guest congratulated the department for taking such efforts for organizing this conference.
On the whole, the conference has been a key milestone in the community to curb the impact of life style diseases and role of physical activity in eradicating them.