Uncovered: The Harsh Reality of Invisible Chronic Health Conditions

The true extent of “invisible” chronic health conditions is explained in latest visual series from Future Fit Training

• 6 million people suffer from anxiety in the UK
• Currently 40% of disability worldwide is due to anxiety and depression
• More than 1 in 10 people likely to have ‘disabling anxiety disorder’ at some stage in life
• At least 115,000 people have Crohn’s disease in the UK
• Approximately 1 in 20 people in the UK suffer from fibromyalgia

18 May 2018; To mark Mental Health Awareness Week (14–20 May), leading professional fitness training provider Future Fit Training reveals the harsh reality of what it feels like to live with chronic health conditions and physical and mental effect it can have on individuals in its latest visual.

“What it feels like to have…” presents a range of striking, symbolic imagery that illustrates how conditions such as anxiety, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and Crohn’s disease impacts the lives of sufferers.

The visual depicts the physical, emotional and mental impact of the chronic condition Raynaud’s syndrome. Affecting around ten million people in the UK, Raynaud’s condition manifests itself when Sufferers’ arteries spasm resulting in reduced blood flow to certain areas, causing white or blue fingers that feel numb and painful.

The autoimmune disease Lupus attacks healthy tissue in many parts of the body. It manifests itself differently in every person, although Lupus symptoms commonly include painful and swollen joints, fever, chest pain, mouth ulcers, fatigue and a red rash on the face.

More than 1 in 10 people are likely to have a disabling anxiety disorder at some stage in their life. Sufferers experience a constant feeling of anxiety and dread about almost anything, making it hard for them to be around people, hold a job and manage relationships. This invisible condition can affect people physically with muscle tension, headaches, shortness of breath, a racing heartbeat, sweating, digestive problems and insomnia.

Fibromyalgia is a condition that is generally not well-understood by medical professionals, even though it affects an estimated 800,000 people in the UK alone. Characterised by chronic pain, overwhelming exhaustion referred to as “fibro-fatigue”, low quality sleep and memory and concentration problems (sometimes referred to as “fibro-fog”). The symptoms of fibromyalgia may manifest themselves suddenly, leaving the sufferer incapacitated.

Rob Johnson, Future Fit Training’s founder and Managing Director, comments, “We want to raise awareness of a range of conditions which affect so many people in the UK, and which may not necessarily be obvious in the first instance. Whilst some of the imagery may appear harrowing, we want to firmly illustrate the pain and impact on mental health caused by these chronic health conditions.”

Johnson continues, “You may not necessarily realise that the person sitting next to you on the bus or walking past you in the street is coping with such difficult challenges on a daily basis. At Future Fit Training, through our specialist Nutrition Adviser, Pilates Instructor and Personal Trainer courses, we place a huge emphasis on the importance of healthy eating and regular exercise. We fully recognise both of these as being of paramount importance and a proven remedy to help improve physical and mental well-being.”

FIND OUT MORE
Discover more about the true extent of “invisible” chronic health conditions today in “What it feels like to have…”.

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For more information or images, please contact:
Vicky Taylor, Digital PR Manager
vicky.taylor@koozai.com
07446650521

Notes to editors:

About Future Fit Training (www.futurefit.co.uk): Future Fit Training provides training qualifications to UK fitness professionals across its specialist schools in nutrition, Pilates and personal training. Future Fit Training was founded in 1993 out of the passion to create better qualified fitness professionals and is proud to be the first and only health and fitness training provider to achieve BSI ISO 9001 Quality Management accreditation. Over the past 25 years Future Fit Training has been driving up standards within the fitness industry by exciting, supporting and inspiring its students to become better educated, dedicated and passionate health and fitness professionals.