Tag Archive for 'benessere'

Athletes victimized by stereotypes about mental illness

Petersen, B., Schinke, R.J., Giffin, C.E., Larivière, M. (2023). The Breadth of Mental Ill-Health Stigma Research in Sport: A Scoping ReviewInternational Journal of Sport Psychology, 54(1), 67-90.

Mental ill-health affects athletes at prevalence rates similar to the general population, despite beliefs that athletes are protected by highly physically active lifestyles. Though discussions of stigma are ubiquitous within sport, the research landscape on mental ill-health stigma in sport is unclear. Consequently, we conducted a scoping review overviewing the extant literature and researchers’ approaches to stigma in sport. We collated data from 68 articles and provided interpretations of the emergent trends. Researchers have primarily focused on athlete help-seeking and mental health literacy in relation to stigma. Additionally, future research should clarify the type of stigma under study and explore structural stigma, which remains a significant literature gap. Finally, shifting toward open-ended and inclusive research methodologies can centralize participants’ involvement, incorporating their experiences and leading to progressive understand- ing of mental ill-health stigma. Our findings present future research directions and research suggestions to expand mental ill-health stigma in sport research.

Stigma isthe devaluation of an individual based on a characteristic they possess or are believed to possess.

As a result, athletes indicate that stigma attached to mental ill-health is one of the biggest barriers to help-seeking behaviours, inhibiting athletes’ utilization of mental health services as they seek to prevent any stigma-related repercussions. Athletes’ unwillingness to access mental health 230 services to avoid stigma may lead to ongoing performance detriments or exacerbation of mental ill-health; subsequently, the effects of stigma on help-seeking behaviours feature prominently in sport psychology stigma research.

The wellbeing secrets: movement and interpersonal relationship

Xu X., Mishra G.D., Holt-Lunstad J., et al. Social relationship satisfaction and accumulation of chronic conditions and multimorbidity: a national cohort of Australian women General Psychiatry 2023;36.

Background Social relationships are associated with mortality and chronic conditions. However, little is known about the effects of social relationship satisfaction on multiple chronic conditions (multimorbidity).

Aims To examine whether social relationship satisfaction is associated with the accumulation of multimorbidity.

Methods Data from 7 694 Australian women who were free from 11 chronic conditions at 45–50 years of age in 1996 were analysed. Five types of social relationship satisfaction (partner, family members, friends, work and social activities) were measured approximately every 3 years and scored from 0 (very dissatisfied) to 3 (very satisfied). Scores from each relationship type were summed to provide an overall satisfaction score (range: ≤5–15). The outcome of interest was the accumulation of multimorbidity in 11 chronic conditions.

Results Over a 20-year period, 4 484 (58.3%) women reported multimorbidities. Overall, the level of social relationship satisfaction had a dose–response relationship with the accumulation of multimorbidities. Compared with women reporting the highest satisfaction (score 15), women with the lowest satisfaction (score ≤5) had the highest odds of accumulating multimorbidity (odds ratio (OR)= 2.35, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.94 to 2.83) in the adjusted model. Similar results were observed for each social relationship type. Other risk factors, such as socioeconomic, behavioural and menopausal status, together explained 22.72% of the association.

Conclusions Social relationship satisfaction is associated with the accumulation of multimorbidity, and the relationship is only partly explained by socioeconomic, behavioural and reproductive factors. Social connections (eg, satisfaction with social relationships) should be considered a public health priority in chronic disease prevention and intervention.

Meditation is for all

When we think of meditation we usually picture a monk in a faraway country in Asia or some privileged person like u actor who has time to do practice at dawn. Most of us don’t meditate because we consider it useless, because we think we don’t have the time, because we are so stressed that meditating would be an added stress, because we would rather sleep an extra half hour and then we are always late, because we have other things to think about, because we don’t need to, because you have kids or the house to fix before you go out, because if he/she doesn’t know anyone who does it there must be a good reason, because at home he/she would think he/she is crazy, because he/she tried it but it’s not for him/her, because he/she doesn’t even have time to eat breakfast in the morning, because he/she thinks it doesn’t do any good, because it doesn’t help solve problems, and so on.

They are not aware that meditating is a way to take care of ourselves and to guide our thoughts on a path that improves our well-being.

In that sense, meditating is taking a thought that we like and developing it, expanding it until it uniquely and totally occupies our mind. Meditating allows us to be focused on one thought at a time with the goal of promoting well-being.

Research has shown that the positive effects of meditation show up clearly after adding up 30 hours of practice. So if a person practiced for 15 minutes for 6 days a week, after 3 months he or she would see the first improvements in his or her mood and psychological condition, which would stabilize over the following months. Of course, this activity is suggested for people who do not suffer from psychological disorders and who, instead, should follow a psychotherapeutic course with a professional.

Walking keeps death away

Association of Daily Step Count and Step Intensity With Mortality Among US Adults

JAMA. 2020; 323(12):1151-1160.

Question  What are the associations between daily step counts and step intensity with mortality among US adults?

Findings  In this observational study that included 4840 participants, a greater number of steps per day was significantly associated with lower all-cause mortality (adjusted hazard ratio for 8000 steps/d vs 4000 steps/d, 0.49). There was no significant association between step intensity and all-cause mortality after adjusting for the total number of steps per day.

Meaning  Greater numbers of steps per day were associated with lower risk of all-cause mortality.

At this time of year, plans are always being made to improve our lives in the coming year. This research provides us with an opportunity to make an important and meaningful choice for our well-being. It’s free and affordable for everyone. It involves walking, an activity that many of us do on an extremely limited basis. It does not matter the speed, to obtain benefits it is enough to move with our pace, however, it is necessary to do 8,000 a day to obtain this positive result that will make us live better and longer.

It’s time to promote the athletes’ and coaches’ mental health

The NGO of Athletic in UK are working with Believe Perform to create new online resources for athletes, coaches and parents around mental health and performance.

Great news!

Immagine

Immagine

The mindset of the people who do not respect the rules

As long as I breathe I hope,” Cicero said, today we could translate it into “as long as there is life there is hope,” more brutal but equally true. The coronavirus affects precisely this capacity that is at the basis of the physiological and psychological needs of living beings. You may not drink or eat for a few days, but you can’t breath for a few minutes if you are not a champion of underwater apnea. Correct breathing is at the base of self-control and the stresses of our daily life determine as a first negative effect our own breathing problems. Fear makes us block our breath, anger hates it to allow us to scream at someone, sadness reduces it to a trickle of air that goes in and out and anxiety makes us breathe in a shallow and superficial way. Breathing reflects our level of physical fitness and well-being and one of the effects of this new virus is to block it, making assisted breathing necessary in many cases. Mario Garattini, founder of the Mario Negri Pharmacological Research Institute, MIlano, said that “everything will depend on us, on our ability to avoid contagion. Let’s adhere to the dispositions. If everyone had adequate lifestyles and there was adequate prevention, perhaps we would be more resistant”.

This awareness, combined with the worldwide spread of the coronavirus and its devastating effects, should have frightened people enough to never leave their homes again, motivating them to respect the rules that have been spread and whose implementation is mandatory. Nevertheless, thousands of people have continued to travel throughout our country and the police have fined more than 2000 people for violating the restrictive rules of the government decree. What are the reasons for this behaviour? Superficiality, too positive approach to the problem, anxiety and a lack of habit of following the rules. Superficiality is a kind of magic thought, in which people think that the coronavirus is a problem that affects others, such as the elderly and sick, is a way to protect themselves from feelings of sadness in the short term. These people deny the existence of the problem and, therefore, engage in behaviour to escape from their reality. A second type of attitude is people who have an approach not mediated by reality and that is too positive, such as those who thought at the beginning of the spread that it was little more than a flu. They are individuals who live under the illusion of positive short-term solutions. A bit like those who start a diet or want to quit smoking and are confident that they will succeed just because they have made this decision, they are illusory forms of thinking so that at the first obstacles people give up following the new rules they have given themselves because it is too difficult. In the case of the coronavirus the problem manifests itself in the difficulty in maintaining the rules of physical distancing from other people and then they go out, take a walk with friends and take their children to play in the gardens. Similar for the effects but different in reasons is the approach of those who feel angst in staying at home. They perceive themselves as prisoners, feel violated in their freedom of movement and live this condition in a claustrophobic way. To overcome it the only solution in going outside. Finally, there are those who live reactively to the rules, have an attitude of eternal adolescents fighting against the norms of the adult world. They find it difficult to make the rules their own, which in this case are mandatory, and to develop a pluralistic concept of social coexistence, based not only on their rights but also on their duties towards the community.

These are some possible interpretations of behaviours that in a period of world crisis like the one we are experiencing and of upheaval of our daily life can explain the actions of the many who seem not to want to adapt to the new rules.

Move and think

Why Your Brain Needs Exercise

The evolutionary history of humans explains why physical activity is important for brain health

David A. Reichlen and Gene E. Alexander, Scientific American, January 1, 2020

Brief synthesis

“Why does exercise affect the brain at all?

Physical activity improves the function of many organ systems in the body, but the effects are usually linked to better athletic performance.

Instead exercise seems to be as much a cognitive activity as a physical one. In fact, this link between physical activity and brain health may trace back millions of years to the origin of hallmark traits of humankind. If we can better understand why and how exercise engages the brain, perhaps we can leverage the relevant physiological pathways to design novel exercise routines that will boost people’s cognition as they age—work that we have begun to undertake.

… we demonstrated that people who spent more time engaged in moderate to vigorous physical activity had larger hippocampal volumes.

Researchers have also documented clear links between aerobic exercise and benefits to other parts of the brain, including expansion of the prefrontal cortex, which sits just behind the forehead. Such augmentation of this region has been tied to sharper executive cognitive functions, which involve aspects of planning, decision-making and multitasking—abilities that, like memory, tend to decline with healthy aging and are further degraded in the presence of Alzheimer’s. Scientists suspect that increased connections between existing neurons, rather than the birth of new neurons, are responsible for the beneficial effects of exercise on the prefrontal cortex and other brain regions outside the hippocampus.

If we can augment the effects of exercise by including a cognitively demanding activity, then perhaps we can increase the efficacy of exercise regimens aimed at boosting cognition during aging and potentially even alter the course of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

They found an additive effect: exercise alone was good for the hippocampus, but combining physical activity with cognitive demands in a stimulating environment was even better, leading to even more new neurons. Using the brain during and after exercise seemed to trigger enhanced neuron survival.”

… we recently showed that collegiate cross-country runners who train extensively on outdoor trails have increased connectivity among brain regions associated with executive cognitive functions compared with healthy but more sedentary young adults. Future work will help us understand whether these benefits are also greater than those seen in runners who train in less complex settings—on a treadmill, for instance.

10 reasons to walk everyday

Knowledge takes place through movement: start walking again at least half an hour every day.

  1. Walking awakens every muscle in the body, not just the legs.
  2. Walking is a time to spend with other people but also in solitude
  3. Walking improves our mood
  4. Walking is just for all ages
  5. Walking is the only activity in common with every human being from thousands of years
  6. Walking has been and is the primary activity to know and expand our territory
  7. Walking on one’s own legs is what parents teach their children
  8. Walking is the basis of running, jumping, throwing and any other form of movement.
  9. Walking into the nature stimulates watching, smelling and the sound of one’s own footsteps
  10. Walking is a free activity

How  do  you  want  to  be?

 

Risultati immagini per wall-e film tramaImmagine correlata

Walk as a tool to be health

Health strongly favored by:

  • 10,000 is the minimum number of steps to do per day
  • 150 are the minutes per week of moderate intensity physical activity
  • 130 steps per minute is the ideal pace for a walk
  • 100 are the walking steps per minute. 25 steps in 15 seconds
  • 5 are the minutes to walk every hour
  • The world don’t walk so much and the world average is 5.000 steps
  • Warning: introduce changes to one’s habits through the adoption of habits tailored to one’s psychological and physical conditions and compatible with everyday life

Risultati immagini per Large-scale physical activity data reveal worldwide activity inequality

Smartphone data from over 68 million days of activity by 717,527 individuals reveal variability in physical activity across the world.

a, World map showing variation in activity (mean daily steps) between countries measured through smartphone data from 111 countries with at least 100 users. Cool colours correspond to high activity (for example, Japan in blue) and warm colours indicate low levels of activity (for example, Saudi Arabia in orange).

b, Typical activity levels (distribution mode) differ between countries. Curves show distribution of steps across the population in four representative countries as a normalized probability density (high to low activity: Japan, UK, USA, Saudi Arabia). Vertical dashed lines indicate the mode of activity for Japan (blue) and Saudi Arabia (orange).

c, The variance of activity around the population mode differs between countries. Curves show distribution of steps across the population relative to the population mode. In Japan, the activity of 76% of the population falls within 50% of the mode (that is, between the light grey dashed lines), whereas in Saudi Arabia this fraction is only 62%. The UK and USA lie between these two extremes for average activity level and variance. This map is based on CIA World Data Bank II data, publicly available through the R package mapdata (https://www.r-project.org/).© 2017 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature.

No walk, no health

In my opinion, the simple action of walking should become one of the main challenges of our near future. A sedentary lifestyle has certainly become the most widespread activity in our world dominated by machines and technology. We also know very well the damage caused by a sedentary lifestyle. Moving has become so important, as well as being not very often sufficiently practiced, so that smartwatches remind us of it imperatively every hour.

How much we walk has been showed by a research:

In USA, Americans take 5,117 steps a day, a distance of approximately 2.5 miles. That’s a significant shortfall compared to the averages in Western Australia (9,695), Switzerland (9,650), Switzerland (9,650) and Japan (7,168).

“It is interesting that these step counts are only about one-third of the values measured for men and women living in an Old Order Amish farming community in Ontario, Canada. Assuming that the labor-intensive farming lifestyle of the Amish reflects that of most North Americans in the mid-1800s, this suggests a marked decline in ambulatory activity over the last century and a half.”

Personally, I have an annual average of 11,988 steps a day, equal to 9,420km.