Health and Illness paper: addiction to working out and social reasoning.

Essay by rugbyhalifaxUniversity, Bachelor'sA-, November 2005

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Weight lose in society has created an obsession for many people. In this essay I will show how society is ultimately to blame for this process of obsession and how it has created exercise mania that leaves some people desperate to create the "perfect" body. This is ultimately another form of health consciousness that has flooded western ideals of what it is to be healthy. It has created niche market that is fueled by public demand. This demand has its roots in the media by creating the ideal of what the perfect body should be. The media thus creates a following of these ideals by the masses. Finally, western ideals are guided by the democratic model that the people control. All of these factors tie in together to make a society that is obsessed with the "prefect" body.

Before, discussing the topic at hand we must first look at the issue of what society views as "perfect".

The image that often comes to mind is famous models and top athletes, such as Cindy Crawford and Mark Mcguire. These people are often the idol of many people and set the bar to model themselves to. They create the image of what it is to be "prefect". The belief that the "prefect' body is unattainable is untrue a reality for most part it takes time, hard work and lots of dedication to become a reality.

Health consciousness has many avenues but one that hasn't been covered all that much is exercise addiction. This idea first came to light in the 1976 when the jogging craze swept the western nations. A study produced some insight in this new area. Though the study was one sided it got the "ball rolling" The study called "positive addiction" took on the idea that exercise...