What if sport could be prescribed as part of the “cure” on the basis of the ailments or pathologies from which the individual person suffers? Here is the result …
A real panacea for health, essential not only for shedding the extra pounds, physical activity must become an integral part of our days. By now a considerable number of scientific studies have shown that exercising regularly is a real “medicine”: contributes to the prevention and treatment of over 40 chronic diseases, to heal faster and significantly reduce the risk of relapse, even in the case of serious diseases such as i cancer, diabetes, depression, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, obesity, anxiety and osteoporosis. What if sport could be prescribed as part of the “cure” on the basis of the ailments or pathologies from which the individual person suffers?
Dosing sport as a drug –
“Any kind of sporting activity or exercise would always go calibrated on the characteristics of the person, in particular in the case of patients with cardiovascular, rheumatic, oncological, musculoskeletal and joint pathologies for which it can be difficult to move and not just play sports – he explains Roberto Gatti, professor and president of the Humanitas University Degree Course in Physiotherapy -. In general, for people with certain pathologies, sport aims to keep the joints “lubricated” and the muscles active.a as much as possible, bring cardiovascular benefits, choosing well-tolerated activities by the patient, taking into account both the fatigue and pain thresholds “.
Rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases –
Those who suffer from continuous, often disabling, pain due to rheumatic diseases know it well: the joint stiffness cThe disease is one of the causes of suffering that leads the patient not to play sports and move less and less. “Instead, together with the prescribed drug therapy, on the basis of the patient’s clinical condition,“ take ”regularly too yoga or stretching sessions and selective exercises for the mobility of the affected joint and a cautious muscular reinforcement, favors the elongation of the whole musculo-ligament system, with benefit on painful symptoms ”underlines Gatti.
Joint diseases –
The best known is thearthrosis, a degenerative disease that affects not only the elderly. The movement pain often causes you to stop all physical activity, sports and also in everyday life, with a series of negative consequences: the patient gains weight, overloads the joints, loses muscle mass, the suffering grows and osteoarthritis progresses. “To regularly practice a sport like swimming or any other activity in the pool or from buoyancy, it reduces the weight on degenerated joints while the resistance exerted by the water favors muscle strengthening and pain management – explains the expert -. In cases of initial osteoarthritis, this strategy (like a proper therapy) can help slow down the wear of the articular cartilage and maintain a healthy weight “.
Tumors –
The fatigue, or chronic fatigue, it is one of the most widespread consequences of anticancer therapies. Above all, the cancer patient in therapy tends to tire very easily, but many scientific studies have now shown that practicing movement regularly (according to the possibilities of the individual) helps to effectively counteract physical and mental exhaustion. Physical activity must therefore be measured and “administered” with particular attention to the patient’s fatigue threshold: “Generally, it is a question of aerobic and muscle training exercises which have as their goal the readjustment to effort and, at the beginning, can last even just a few minutes – explains Gatti -. Especially in the chronic cancer patient, any physical activity tolerated and appreciated by the patient is the right medicine “.
Cardiovascular diseases –
In these patients, but in general it is true for everyone even for healthy people, the heart needs to be continuously stimulated with aerobic activity. Walking at a more or less fast pace, slow running, cycling, swimming they are sports that “prescribed” according to a personalized dosage based on the general conditions of the patient, improve aerobic capacity, thanks to the controlled increase in heart rate for a certain time. The “dosage” in terms of effort and duration can increase over time.
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