19Nov 24
Anxiety and depression: sport prevents
The study concerns the United Kingdom, was carried out on a sample of over 37,000 people and was published in recent days in the journal BMC Medicine. Almost a third of cases of depression and anxiety affecting adults could be prevented through sport or physical exercise. More precisely: doing 150 to 300 minutes a week of moderate physical activity would reduce the risk of becoming anxious or depressed for 47 percent of people and if everyone could do at least 75 minutes a week of running or swimming, this would lead to preventing almost 19% of cases of depression and anxiety. The English researchers examined people aged between 37 and 73 who did not suffer from anxiety. Their physical activity was monitored over a period of almost seven years and only 3% developed depression or anxiety. We knew a little. Last year it was a research coordinated by University of Pisa to ascertain that if people had been able to maintain the same levels of motor activity during the lockdown, up to 21% of serious cases of anxiety or depression could have been avoided. The study also involved the universities of Florence, Turin, Genoa and Messina and was published in the scientific journal “Plos One” after a survey on the lifestyle of the university population during the lockdown between April and May 2020 which involved almost 20 thousand students, teachers and technical-administrative staff. The psychological distress of the children and not only that, like everyone else, found themselves having to deal with the pandemic and the consequent limitations on freedom and at certain times even with the ban on doing physical activity except at home, was under the lens. . The result was that higher levels of anxiety or depression were detected more frequently among students who, during the lockdown, had stopped practicing physical activity and among those who had to deal with lower incomes. Those who managed to continuously practice physical activity even during the lockdown had a 20% reduced risk of suffering from anxiety and depression, while those who stopped practicing physical exercise had a 50% higher risk. Now there is confirmation that sport in these cases is a powerful prevention “drug”. comes from the United Kingdom: «This is a very strong public health message – he explained Carlos Celis-Morales, senior author of the study from the University of Glasgow – because sport and exercise are free…”.