• Physical activity

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness,” wrote Mark Twain. The more one travels, the more one realises that all human beings crave the same essential ingredients in life: safety, prosperity, the affection of others and good health. As healthcare professionals, we have the ability and opportunity to contribute to the good health of others. To make this contribution meaningful, however, we first need to understand the definitions of ‘health’ and ‘normal’.

Furthermore, to effectively intervene to improve the health of another, we need to understand how the particular health issue is impacting on the functional capacity of that individual. Two of my patients illustrated this point. The first was an elite level cyclist who had fallen off her bicycle a week prior, suffering a deep and long soft tissue laceration just below the knee, requiring extensive suturing and leaving a very impressive wound. The second athlete was a para-canoe athlete with a T6 level spinal lesion with painful blisters on both thumbs. The blisters had been caused by canoeing but were severe enough to now be causing difficulty with wheelchair mobility. At first glance, the blisters might have seemed relatively trivial compared to the cyclist’s leg wound. In terms of the potential threat to functional capacity; however, the blisters were a far more significant injury.