One of the latest projects activated by Sports Medicine concerns physical activity as a lever to help people quit smoking. In recent months, an experimental project has been activated with i Ausl anti-smoking centers in Modena and Castelfranco (the Centers are present in each of the 7 Districts of the province) which provides for a specific motor activity adapted among the activities of the group courses to stop smoking. Course participants are sent to the Sports Medicine headquarters in Modena (in via Rita Levi Montalcini) where, in the service gym, they carry out adapted motor activity exercises coordinated by kinesiologists. The exercises are always carried out in groups, to recreate the same self-help context of the smoking cessation groups. From September, the participants will have the opportunity to do outdoor physical activity thanks to the walking groups to which they will always be directed by Sports Medicine.
“Among the advice given in the 12 meetings of the anti-smoking courses, that of increasing physical activity, especially outdoors, is fundamental – emphasizes the doctor Massimo Bigarelli head of the anti-smoking centers of the Local Health Authority – It is no coincidence that many initiatives that take place in May on the occasion of No Tobacco Day have been organized together with health walks. Regular physical activity, even half an hour of walking, increases cardiac performance, oxygenation and eliminates the ‘carbon monoxide (CO) waste’ accumulated”.
“As with all addictions – explains Gustavo Savino director of the Sports Medicine Service – when the smoker begins a process of quitting he experiences psychological discomfort and the difficulty in managing the desire to light up a cigarette can become a problem that generates anxiety and frustration. Motor activity favors the production of serotonin in the brain, a neurotransmitter that supports relaxation and favors a favorable attitude towards the reduction and definitive cessation of the cigarette smoking habit. Furthermore, physical activity improves the respiratory and cardiovascular response”.
Another recent project concerns the agreement with the Adolescent Center Operational Unit of the Psychology Service for the promotion of the psychophysical well-being of the young patients in care.
The Adolescence Center is the Ausl service that deals with basic emotional disorders and is aimed directly at boys and girls between 14 and 20 years of age. The collaboration with Sports Medicine, a project currently available only for adults, was born as a response to the need of some young people to improve their relationship with their bodies and provide a tool for emotional regulation.
“Adolescence is the age that says goodbye to the world of childhood and builds the bridge to adulthood – points out Maria Corvese Head of Adolescent Centers – the difficulty of this moment is constituted by the need to integrate aspects of oneself acquired in the family with new abilities discovered and tested together with peers. The key instrument of this passage is the body and it is on this terrain that the conflicts and difficulties of the moment manifest themselves; often we don’t recognize ourselves in our physical appearance, we don’t like each other and we use food, alcohol, smoke and legal and illegal substances or self-harm to modulate this experience of discontent and inadequacy. The central idea of the project in collaboration with the Sports Medicine is to use, for some patients of the Adolescence Center, the prescription of the general practitioner for adapted physical exercise and to favor an individualized approach to movement as a tool for pleasant reconciliation with themselves”.
“Motor activity, in addition to representing a fundamental vehicle for health, has the ability to promote sharing, socialization and integration between people, especially among adolescents – points out Savino – the age range that distinguishes this period of life is often characterized by abandonment of sports, a sedentary lifestyle, excessive use and abuse of electronic devices up to phenomena of isolation and difficult integration into the group of peers. Motor activity can strengthen self-esteem, encourage meeting with peers and counteract a sedentary lifestyle by preventing future health problems”.
Furthermore, the activity of Adapted physical exercise (Efa) for people with chronic conditions (including type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome, organ transplants or people awaiting a transplant, diseases included in a specific regional protocol) and adapted physical activity (Afa) for people with musculoskeletal and neuro-muscular pathologies (including neck pain, back pain, low back pain, hip replacement, arthrosis, primary fibromyalgia, Parkinson’s disease). People with chronic pathologies are taken care of by Sports Medicine following a prescription from the general practitioner or specialist doctor: after an assisted journey with kinesiologists they are sent to ‘gyms that promote health‘ (listed on the Emilia Region website – Romagna ‘Map of health‘ in which the Sports Medicine of Modena collaborates) to continue the exercises independently. “Our goal is to ensure that people continue motor activity over time and independently – explain i preventive and adapted motor activity technicians – during our journey we also offer nutritional and psychological advice to direct people towards a healthy lifestyle of which physical activity is only a part. It is also important to work on the motivational aspect because it is the factor that will then push people to continue the activity without our help”.
To these activities is added the coaching of Sports Medicine to the many walking groups who were born spontaneously in the province of Modena, in particular after the acute phase of the Covid-19 pandemic: the Ausl organizes training courses for walking leaders who coordinate and lead the groups and direct people with chronic pathologies towards these realities they have finished the path of adapted motor activity and want to stay on the move, as an alternative to gyms that promote health.