breaking latest news – One exercise a day keeps the doctor away. More and better than the apple. This is recommended by the British health system which is about to launch a study to evaluate the results of sports prescribing and its impact on reducing the burden of care. This was announced by the Paìs which in an in-depth report writes that if “exercise were a pill, there would be no doctor who would not prescribe it”.
The effects are more than beneficial: “Reduces the risk of all-cause mortality, ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, hypertension, colon and breast cancer, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, osteoporosis, sarcopenia, functional dependence and falls in the elderly, cognitive impairment, anxiety and depression ”. In short, this and more with very few side effects if the exercise dose is adequate and commensurate with the person who practices it.
According to the Guardian, however, the idea itself “is that general practitioners prescribe sports as part of a non-drug program of activities whose goal is to reduce the burden on overall health system. Fewer physical problems, less treatment and less health care costseven if it is known that it is certainly not the prescription and the advice of a doctor to play sports or a minimum of physical exercise for the patient to do.
In any case, even if the study of the British health system has neither started nor concluded, what is already certain is that “the benefits of physical activity are so demonstrated that there is no possible debate on its suitability”, glosses the Paìs.
In short, it is possible to discuss how much, how and what type is suitable for each person, “but it is safe to say that most of the population would benefit from increasing the time spent exercising”.
According to an Ipsos survey, Spain “is the fourth country with the most sedentary people in Europe (15%) and the average activity is 5.2 hours per week, compared to 6.1 in Europe and 12.8 in the countries Low, which are at the top of the rankings.
What is not so clear is the role that doctors can play and whether prescribing exercise during a doctor’s visit is the most effective way. On the contrary, Fernando Rodríguez Artalejo, professor of public health at the Autonomous University of Madrid who has published numerous studies on lifestyle habits, assures that the assessments on social prescriptions (ranging from sports to activities in day care centers for the elderly) are scarce.
Invested in research 12.7 million pounds
Changing your lifestyle is then very complicated, so much so that we have seen that “we have to act on many levers”. Says the lecturer: “In a previous British study, it was seen that when patients were referred to public gyms and swimming pools, there was no improvement in physical activity,” says Rodríguez Artalejo because having the infrastructures, he reasons, in itself “is a necessary condition, but by no means sufficient”.
The British health system study, which will start later this year, has a budget of 12.7 million pounds (about 15 million euros). Artalejo, despite being skeptical about changing patient habits, believes that it is something to pay attention to and from which conclusions can be drawn also applicable to Spain: “Thanks to the British we learn a lot, because they invest a lot of money in support of social services . We will be able to know if it works, in who does it, what is the appropriate level of social prescription and if it is justified by the costs “.
In the UK there are already other similar lines of research, such as the particular one in which it is studied whether it can improve the health of patients, especially mental health, by prescribing contact with nature. There are already several surveys with promising results in this regard, which show many benefits of contact with green environments and exposure to natural light.
In Australia, last year A physical activity prescription program was launched in the park in coordination with local councils, which includes over 450 outdoor activities on weekends. “Because it is of little use to prescribe exercise without other complementary measures that facilitate its exercise”, concludes the newspaper.