TALES FROM THE
EDGE
HEAL, which stands for Health thru Exercise, Arts and Lifestyle, has previously conducted research programmes in sub-saharan Africa, inclusive of women receiving antiretroviral treatment.
It is imperative that exercise and lifestyle clinics be established in other regions across the continent and this is our aim, to improve the mental and physical wellbeing of these specialty populations.
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THE HEAL RESEARCH PROGRAMME (PHD)
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This research study investigated the effects of a programme of applied motor cognitive exercise (cognitive-kinetics), adapted and applied to a sample of HIV-infected women, receiving anti-retroviral treatment (ART) in Southern Africa.
The motivation of this research, in terms of the field of psychology, was to ascertain the relationship of HIV and lipodystrophy with body image and depression.
The study was divided into two stages.
1. A pilot study, comprising informal faceto face interviews (Stage 1, utilising the WHO/Unfpa aids inventory, 2005), was conducted in the subSaharan region, (KENYA, ZAMBIA AND MALAWI), in order to determine the extent of physical disability of women in these regions, imposed by their anti-retroviral treatment (ART).
The body of literature investigated in this study focused upon the effect that physical side effects, such as lipodystrophy, have on the psychological wellbeing of the HIV sufferer. It was found that a wide range of psychophysical constraints, including stigma, mood disorders, social avoidance, physical defects - which extend to neurological, circulatory and metabolic impairment - impact on this population. Due to limited resources and access to normative rehabilitative programmes, many women in these regions are at a loss for ways to improve or maintain their own physical and mental health and well-being.
Further research determined the proven benefits of exercise on the disease, which show that exercise works as a modality for positive behavioural modification and reinforcement. It was then determined, based on this evidence, that a specific type of physical intervention, or specialty exercise solution, customised for this population, would act to alleviate some of the psychological distress caused by the complex and often disfiguring physical side-effects caused by ARVs. After extensive reviews of therapeutic movement modalities, it was proposed that a low-impact, resistance-based programme of cognitive-kinetic training, would effectively address some of these complications. This form of cognitive movement encourages the participant to focus directly on affected areas of the body and further improves both strength and immunity.
key words HIV/Aids, immunity, lipodystrophy, lipoatrophy, metabolism, motor-cognition, movement therapy, people living with HIV (PLHIV), stigma, sub-Saharan Africa, viral load
HEALth & wellness
days I programmes
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2012: UMOYO, LUSAKA ZAMBIA: Health and wellness programme with Kim Otteby, Chisamba farms and other
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2013: MANAGEMENT SCIENCES FOR HEALTH: Beware the chair programme
2014: JOHNSON & JOHNSON, JOHANNESBURG :Health and wellness programme,
including yoga and other
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EXERCISE SOLUTIONS, FITNESS AND MOVEMENT C/O THE ASSOCIATION OF
PHYSICAL ARTS AND MOVEMENT FOR HEALTH ... SEE www.movelogik.wix.com/activ
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I have recently discovered that my brave young Kenyan friend, and adopted
son, Amos, has succumbed to his illness. I met him on a hot, dusty day, on the
road outside the Narok Masaai District hospital, in the Great Rift Valley
of Kenya. Although an orphan, and starving, he was very proud and would
not accept my offer of food. His life story and struggle were almost unbelievable, yet he exuded a strength and will for life that I will probably rarely encounter again.
Here is an excerpt from the Kenyan leg of my research into specialty exercise and HIV. '....with sophisticated treatment regimens, HIV and Aids has swiftly dropped out of the limelight... no longer the 'darling of donors',. many NGOs and district hospitals, such as the Narok Masaai District hospital (where I was offered a space to establish a temporary exercise therapy clinic), have rapidly dwindling funding options and are at great pains to fill the yawning gaps in health services and provisions.
Scores of VCT (HIV testing) centers are now nothing more than gutted shelters, with staff sitting around aimlessly. It is only thanks to the dedication and commitment of beleaguered care workers and health agencies, that the disease has not eliminated entire pockets of rural communities. My new friend (Jeremy Ole Senteu) and I were loaned bicycles and spent the following weeks negotiating the rough terrain to access remote rural clinics, NGO centers, district hospitals and affiliated community or church programmes. The bicycles needed extensive maintenance (poor Jeremy tried his best) and we soon exchanged this laborious mode of transport for minibus taxis and walking, with the heat relentlessly gnawing at our heels.
My work complete (Phase 1), at the end of April I bade a reluctant farewell to my new friends and made my way back to Nairobi. From there I tracked my way back down to South Africa, crossing borders c/o crowded minibus taxis, via Tanzania (Arusha, Iringa, Mbeya) to Malawi (Nkhata Bay, Mzuzu, Lilongwe), and then bused down to Johannesburg via Mozambique and Zimbabwe. I visited many VCT centers along the way and was fortunate to suffer only one near death experience in a minibus close to the southern border of Tanzania.
