May National Physical Fitness and Sports Month
By Abigail Tapper,
MPH, Research Associate
May is
National Physical Fitness and Sports Month.
While most people are aware that exercise has health benefits, we
don’t always realize how many benefits there are, and there are often barriers
in the way. These barriers can be things
like lack of transportation, low levels of knowledge, and lack of resources. Later in this post, we will highlight a
program that is addressing such barriers.
Among youth, physical fitness can lead not only to good cardiovascular
health, but improved bone and muscle health.[1] If a child is not physically fit, they are
more likely to have high blood pressure, be overweight or obese, and are more
likely to have diabetes. Increases in
exercise and other activities can lead to lower rates of depression among young
people.[2]
Participation in team sports has
numerous benefits as well. There are the
obvious physical benefits as previously outlined and others pertaining to risk-taking
and emotional health: for example, studies have found that participation in
team sports leads to an older initial sexual intercourse age, lower risky
sexual behavior and, especially for adolescent girls, lower cigarette and drug
use.[3] Other studies have found that being part of a
sports team leads to improved psychosocial health.[4]
In
adults, higher rates of physical activity have been shown to lower the risk of
heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some types of cancer. Like in youth, regular physical activity has
been shown to lower rates of depressive symptoms in adults. While exercise may not prevent anxiety and
depression, research tells us that it alleviates symptoms of both and the
benefits are akin to those received from meditation or other forms of
relaxation.[5] Several
studies have found that exercise can act as a kind of antidepressant, improving
mood and lowering neuroticism.[6],[7],[8] Other research suggests that when those who
are addicted to drugs or alcohol engage in some kind of physical activity in
addition to regular substance use treatment, it can act as an “adjunct”, aka a
substitute, to the high achieved from those substances. [9]
For the
older population, exercise shows numerous benefits. Physical fitness can lower the risk for falls
in older adults as well as improving cognitive function. Adults age 65 and above can lower their risk
for osteoporosis and other bone health disorders. Mentally, it improves the feeling of self
control and efficacy.[10] Research goes even further to say that adults
who exercise more, especially into their 80s and 90s, can expect to live
longer.[11]
A
program that we would especially like to highlight is one we at ICH have in our
proverbial backyard. Shape Up Somerville
is a 15 year old initiative aimed at improving the health of all residents of
Somerville, as well as visitors and people who work within the city. They do this by increasing access to healthy
activities and food, engaging high risk, low income and minority participants,
and working to affect systemic change in the actual civic structures within
Somerville. Some of the resources they
offer are interactive maps of bike routes and walking paths (like those found here
and here),
and mobile farmers markets that actually meet residents where they are. These markets come to public spaces and allow
residents to shop where and when it’s convenient for them. They
also work with restaurants in the area to promote healthy eating. They developed a resource guide that outlines
several healthy options at area restaurants.
You can look at the guide
here. Since the program’s
inception, Somerville has seen a drop in unhealthy snacking among adolescents, a
significant increase in the students meeting physical activity goals, and more
students reporting that they walk to school.
Read more about Shape Up Somerville here.
Another initiative that ICH has worked with is Cambridge
Health Alliance’s Wellness Program. CHA’s
Wellness program revolves around 4 pillars: Self-care, rest and recovery,
movement and nutrition. Each pillar is
associated with one of the fiscal quarters, so there is always new wellness
programming happening. Each department
has their very own wellness champion that staff can go to for advice and
resources. These staff are the ones
usually implementing the wellness curriculum as well as keeping staff
motivated.
ICH
worked with CHA to evaluate the success of their wellness program, especially
looking at participation rates in the various wellness programs. ICH then gave this feedback to the CHA
Wellness team to use to inform their programs for the next year. Overall, participants were satisfied with the
various wellness initiatives they participated in. To read more about wellness at CHA, click here.
Happy moving!
[3] Kulig,
Kimary, Nancy D. Brener, and Tim McManus. "Sexual activity and substance
use among adolescents by category of physical activity plus team sports
participation." Archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine 157.9
(2003): 905-912.
[6] https://academic.oup.com/eurpub/article/16/2/179/505757/Effects-of-physical-exercise-on-depression
In today's world, lifestyle has changed completely. people are less active, most of the time on junk and other high sugar foods, drink alcohol and smoke. So in this scenario, this is very important to educate our generation the importance of bone health and what they need to correct. I will share this blog with a couple of my friends. Hope this will change something about their lifestyle. Thanks for sharing this.
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