Topic 4 DQ 2: Gordon’s Functional Health Patterns

“I’m not as young as I used to be”, a common complaint in a middle-aged person with an inactive lifestyle. While this is true, physical activity is something that must become a priority in achieving optimal health. Regular exercise has been shown to decrease risks associated with coronary heart disease and stroke . Heart disease remains the number one cause of death for men and women. Some risk factors for Heart disease is obesity, physical inactivity, smoking, hypertension, and genetics. We all know the benefits of reduction of type 2 diabetes with regular exercise. When you exercise, your cells become more sensitive to insulin so it can work more efficiently. Your cells remove glucose from the blood when you exercise using a mechanism totally separate from insulin. Exercising consistently can lower the A1C (“Blood glucose,” 2013) . It has also shown that exercise can reduce the risk of certain types of cancers . Research has shown that cycling or walking half hour a day can reduce cancer risks. Increased physical activity is correlated with reduced colon cancers in both sexes. It has been shown that increased physical activity after cancer diagnosis can aid recovery and improve outcomes . Healthy adults should aim for 30 minutes a day for 5 days a week of moderate intensity physical activity. Physical inactivity leads to widespread pathophysiological changes to the body (Wiley & Blackwell, 2010).

Utilizing Gordon’s Functional Health Patterns, the nurse can examine habits that have been in place for years. The nurse can help this person to see the damaging effects of a lifestyle and educate on the positive change that can come through health promotion. Some aspects of health promotion are the acceptance of aging, the need to exercise, and the importance of weight control. The goal of increasing heart rate and blood pressure through exercise is taught. Suggested activities are brisk walking, jogging, swimming, bicycling, and skipping rope. A focus on skill and coordination are best for the middle-aged person. The goal is to help the person improve their quality of life by eliminating risks factors. Providing self-help information and describing available resources will be beneficial (Edelman, Kudzma, & Mandle, 2014, p. 571-572) .

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.