Physical or sporting activity plays an essential role in the prevention of certain mental and physical illnesses, when the disease is established, physical or sports activity has a significant impact on the progression of the disease.
Physical activity is defined as any body movement produced by the contraction of skeletal muscles resulting in an increase in energy expenditure above resting expenditure.
Physical and sporting activities represent a continuum ranging from inactivity to at least moderate activity to the practice of high-intensity activities regularly (as in high-level athletes), Physical activity is therefore not synonymous with sports activity.
Studies consistently show a lower relative risk of death in physically active people compared to inactive people.
They confirm an inverse dose-response relationship between physical activity and mortality.
An energy expenditure of 1000 kcal to 1700 kcal per week would be associated with a significant reduction in mortality, Moderate practice (at least 3 hours per week) or high-intensity activity (at least 20 minutes 3 times per week) leads to a reduction in the risk of mortality of around 30%.
People who changed the intensity of their practice had a lower mortality rate than those who remained inactive or did not change the intensity of their practice.
In physical active subjects at risk of cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular death appears lower than in those who are not active, the same is true for people with diabetes.
The risk of death from cancer is also reduced in active people (moderate or intense activity) compared to non-active people.
Physical activity contributions to well-being and quality of life:
The regular practice of physical activities of moderate intensity contributes to subjective well-being and the overall quality of life by acting on the factors which intervene in the various integrated dimensions (positive affective experiences through group integration or positive the other, lower stress level, satisfaction with the body, satisfaction through active participation in social life.
These psychological repercussions are observed in both pathological and non-pathological populations.
Physical activity contributions to the acquisition and maintenance of bone capital:
Physical practice acts on bone mass, density, and texture, The earlier the practice, the greater the influence on tone mass.
Benefits are also observed in the mechanical properties of the bone (increased resistance to fracture practice), A multi-activity sports seems to correspond to the best-expectedbenefit during growth.
When physical practice begins between the ages of around 20 and 25, it contributes to slowing down bone loss.
Physical activity contributes to the prevention of cardiovascular diseases and is an important part of their treatment:
Physical activity is recommended in the field of cardiovascular diseases, both to prevent their occurrence and to limit their consequences when they are established.
The main conditions concerned are coronary artery disease, chronic heart failure, and arterial disease of the lower limbs. Physical activity prevents the onset of type 2 diabetes in nearly 60% of cases in subjects with glucose intolerance.
When diabetes is installed, physical activity facilitates glycemic homeostasis.
It allows the reduction of insulin resistance, the improvement of the transport and the use of muscular glucose, and the reduction of the hepatic production of glucose.
Physical activity reduces blood pressure in hypertensive patients, with in average of 11mmHg for systolic blood pressure and 8mmHg for diastolic blood pressure.
Physical activity contributes to the improvement of the serum lipid profile with an average decrease of 3.7% in the level of triglycerides, 5% in the level of LDL-cholesterol, and an increase of 4.6% in the level of HDL cholesterol.
Physical activity can influence the immune system
The results show that the relationships between physical training and immune parameters follow an inverted U curve.
The immune status improves under the effect of moderate training and then deteriorates for intense training.
The aging of the immune system is characterized by a progressive decline in the response to exogenous antigens.
It has been demonstrated that increasing the level of physical activity of elderly subjects prevents the decline of immune functions.
The vaccine response to influenza vaccination is greater in older trained subjects.
Physical activity contributions to the proper functioning of the brain, regular physical activity strengthens the neurovascular unit by at least two mechanisms: increased angiogenesis and increased astroglia.
The action of physical activity on the brain also concerns degenerative pathologies: physiological aging and Alzheimer's disease.
Elderly subjects who have practiced regular physical activity throughout their lives have less brain tissue loss than sedentary subjects and have better cognitive performance.
Exercise reduces, or even blocks, neuronal damage or loss regardless of the type of lesions caused in the animal, and promotes the recovery of behavioral and/or motor performance.
Physical activity reduces the risk of some types of cancer
Physical activity has a convincing preventive effect on colon and breast cancer and a probable effect on endometrial cancer.
Evidence exists, but is limited for lung and prostate cancers. Most often, a dose-response effect is observed for moderate to high-intensity activity, with too intense physical activity not generating greater benefits.
During and after treatment, suitable physical activity of low to moderate intensity improves the quality of life and reduces the feeling of fatigue.
One of the systemic effects of physical activity is the decrease in the biologically active fraction (free fraction) of sex hormones.
This beneficial effect is exerted on hormone-dependent cancers (breast, endometrium, prostate) by reducing the endogenous production of estrogens.
Physical activity is a treatment in its own right for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease:
Physical activity such as walking or cycling for two or more hours per week reduces hospitalizations and respiratory-related mortality by up to 40%.
Physical activity acts in the prevention and treatment of osteoarticular and degenerative diseases:
The regular practice of physical activity is now recognized as an integral part of the therapeutic management of disability, and chronic and degenerative diseases.
Maintaining a certain level of physical activity is effective against the deleterious effects of immobilization on the structure of ligaments and tendons.
The positive effects of physical activity have been demonstrated concerning the management of chronic low back pain.
With regard to rheumatic pathology, the benefits of physical activity are now proven, for inflammatory syndromes, and especially rheumatoid arthritis, but also for osteoarthritis.
If the moderate and regular practice of sport does not represent, on its own, a factor favoring the development of osteoarthritis, the same is not true of intensive practice.
This last observation leads to insisting on the respect of healing times, and the need for a progressive resumption of sport after injury.
Physical activity or sport is beneficial at any age. It decreases overall all-cause mortality and in doing so increases life expectancy. Physical or sports activity reduces the cardiovascular risk, the thromboembolic risk, plays a determining role in the prevention of type 2 diabetes, in the appearance of colon and breast cancer, in the genesis of cognitive disorders and depressed. When the disease is established, physical or sports activity has a significant impact on the progression of the disease.
The public health recommendation for physical activity is for adults to engage in at least moderate-intensity physical activity (such as brisk walking) for at least 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week or less. engaging in higher-intensity physical activity for at least 20 minutes each time 3 days a week.