A study of more than a million Americans shows that athletes have better mental health than inactive people.
A healthy mind in a healthy body: a study carried out in the United States confirms the maxim. People practicing physical activity would have better morale than inactive people. The results were published in the medical journal The Lancet.
Sport has many virtues: better cardiovascular health, maintaining a balanced weight, strengthening the immune system, better quality sleep, etc. This time, scientists were interested in the benefits of physical activity on morale. In total, they collected data from 1,237,193 people aged 18 or over. All of them answered a questionnaire concerning their health and moral state.
No more than three hours of sport per week
The researchers compared the number of days participants reported having low morale. They found that people who engaged in regular physical activity had 43.2% fewer such days, compared to those who were inactive. All kinds of physical activity had a beneficial effect on mental well-being, but team sports, cycling and gymnastics were said to be the most effective.
These results are not a call to spend five hours a week at the gym. According to the results, playing more than three hours of sport is worse for morale than inactivity. The ideal would be to do between three and five weekly sports sessions lasting between 30 and 60 minutes.
Prescription sports
The benefits of sport are of interest to medicine. Since 2016, doctors have been encouraged to prescribe sports on prescription for their patients with chronic illnesses, but the device is little used. Last October, the Haute Autorité de Santé published a guide to encourage general practitioners to use it.
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