By Marco Romano
In this case we use motor activity as a therapeutic means to improve and treat different pathological conditions identified as stroke risk factors;
"In this case the motor activities that must be carried out, have a certain specificity and change for each pathological condition to be treated"
- Therapeutic motor activity adapted for hypertensive patients
- Therapeutic motor activity adapted for diabetics
- Therapeutic motor activity adapted for overweight or obese subjects.
What do you associate with sports?
Stroke prevention is not based only on motor activity; in addition to embarking on an "active" lifestyle, in fact, we need to associate other changes in our lifestyle by trying to eliminate other bad habits that are part of it:
- Smoke elimination;
- Elimination of unbalanced diets especially those with high fat content;
- Eliminate or at least reduce the intake of alcohol and drugs.
These are the apparently easier changes to make to our lifestyles; in reality it is not so, often these bad habits - including the sedentary lifestyle - are the most difficult to eliminate, the subject, despite being aware of the risks that these factors entail, is unable to do less. Overcoming this psychological barrier today has become a serious problem for our health.
Precautions and fitness for physical exercise
The general exams must be taken at any age and repeated at least once a year and are:
- Family history, personal physiology, pathology;
- General objective examination and of the single organs and apparatuses;
- Laboratory investigations (ECG at rest and under exercise, respiratory tests);
- Any other exams will be carried out in relation to clinical findings.
Some pathologies exclude the possibility of practicing physical exercise, others such as hypertension, diabetes or obesity, require particular precautions and in this case a specific motor activity will take place.
Conclusions
At the conclusion of what has been written, we can say that the desire to give dignity, awareness and importance to a pathology, such as a stroke, for too long considered an inevitable eventuality of old age, towards which there was not much to do; on the contrary, we have seen how this is a pathology that can be effectively combated, whose causative factors are not linked exclusively to aging, but also to negative behaviors, attitudes and lifestyles, which significantly increase the onset. Let us remember that stroke is the first cause of disability, the second leading cause of dementia and the third leading cause of death in technologically advanced countries, which is why the best weapon to combat it is prevention. Physical activity has been the subject of study for years to evaluate its preventive effectiveness against stroke; at the current state of knowledge, it is reasonable to recommend a moderate intensity and aerobic type of physical activity as a permanent change in lifestyle. Today we can say with certainty that it is the most effective means of maintaining good health and preventing various diseases, particularly cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, metabolic (diabetes and obesity), osteo-articular (osteoporosis), hypertension and cancer. The numerous scientific evidences have led the large national and international health organizations to propose physical activity as their main health objective. Promoting physical activity has therefore become a priority public health action, often included in health plans and programming throughout the world; some examples are represented by the WHO (World Health Organization), the US National Health Plan "Healthy People 2010" and the European Union "Public Health Program (2003-2008)" which identify physical activity as one of the main health objectives for the country. In Italy, first the National Health Plan 2003-2005, which emphasizes the importance of physical activity for health, then also the most recent National Health Plan 2006-2008, address the issue of sedentary lifestyle, in particular from the point of view of causes of cardiovascular and metabolic pathologies. From this point of view, all those initiatives aimed at studying and monitoring the national situation (such as the Passi study) are important, on the other hand, to promote physical prevention and promotion activities in the area. As indicated in the 2003-2004 Report on the State of Health of the Country, among the possible lines of action on the subject of the promotion of physical activity, to be developed both at central and territorial level, some are considered more effective with a view to public health: increase the time devoted to physical activity inside and outside the school and encourage children and adolescents to carry out at least 30 minutes of daily physical activity, also through agreements that provide for the facilitation of access to recreational and sports facilities (school, municipal or of another kind); develop educational activities for children on physical activity, as an integral part of health education programs; push employers to facilitate the practice of regular physical activity by employees; support the performance of individual or team sports by citizens through, for example, the organization of events or tournaments; promote the development of urban environments that encourage physical activity, including the availability of cycle paths and pedestrian paths on routes that are also of scenic and historical-artistic interest, inviting the use of stairs, for example with signs placed at strategic points near the automatic systems (lifts, escalators, etc.). Today, unfortunately, the populations of the whole world, mainly the technologically advanced ones, still show a too high level of sedentariness, for this reason the promotion campaigns in the future should be strengthened; perhaps in this sense something is changing, it seems that various nations and large healthcare organizations are studying new promotional maneuvers to bring people closer to motor activity. Certainly a forecast cannot be made; will be the results that will be obtained in the future to make us understand whether these maneuvers have been effective or not.
It seems only right to point out that the blame for an increasingly widespread sedentary lifestyle cannot be attributed exclusively to the lack of effectiveness of promotional programs. In this regard, I would like to conclude by addressing a very complex problem that hinders the efforts made in recent years to bring people closer to motor practice. The promotion of physical activity carried out in the various countries, in recent years has mainly aimed, through information (TV, newspapers, radio, school, family doctor, etc.), to make people understand the importance of motor activity and its benefits. It seems that at least in this the promotion has done a great job, as today most people are aware of the importance of physical activity. The question that arises spontaneously at this point is: why does man move less and less despite being aware of the benefits of motor activity? In addition to the reasons often mentioned concerning the advent of the modern and technological era, the answers should be sought in the wealth of knowledge, habits, beliefs and values (culture) that each individual has, and where, unfortunately, physical activity is not considered a means of enhancing the health of our body, but a means of treating the external appearance of our body or having economic advantages, following a logic of having and appearing that is widespread in today's society. To bring people closer to motor activity, therefore, it is not enough to understand the benefits that this has, one must be motivated as well as aware; the movement must accompany us in all the phases of our life, we need to recover a theory and a practice of culture that does not consider corporeality an accessory and ornamental value to be disposed of, but constitutive of the "human person".
