The Covid-19 showed in all its drama the vulnerability of society to unknown pathogens – despite the miraculous rush to vaccines – but also proved the importance of relationship between health, well-being and economic development. Without the first there are no seconds. Accomplices in many cases the housework, the distance learning and the travel restrictions, at least in certain periods, one of the most serious risks of these months has been and still is sedentary lifestyle. It is the primary cause of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, colon cancer and many other diseases. 14.6% of all deaths are caused precisely by a sedentary lifestyle, around 90,000 deaths a year. The World Health Organization defines health as “a state of well-being and psycho-physical balance and not the mere absence of disease“. Last November WHO published new guidelines in which it considers a person physically active if every week he manages to perform at least 300 minutes of aerobic physical activity, no more 150. To accumulate those minutes of movement you must therefore walking, running or cycling. “The problem is sitting for a long time – he explains Omar Gatti, Doctor of Motor Sciences of Bikeitalia.it who a MobilitARS, a digital symposium to discuss and disseminate proposals for sustainable urban mobility starting on February 3, will present its proposal for a National Anti-sedentary Plan – physical inactivity prolonged for hours causes an increase in localized inflammation, a reduced absorption of sugar and fat in the blood it’s a accumulation of adipocytes (fat cells) between organs. Three conditions that are harmful to health ».
According to several studies (for example one published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports in 2010), the best way to become more physically active throughout the day is replacing the car with the bicycle on the journey from home to work (or go directly on foot, for those who work nearby). The use of two wheels makes it possible to breaking the bed-car-chair-car chain of physical inactivity that characterizes millions of modern Italians. At this stage, for many of them, there is no longer even the passage by car: you stay directly at home, in a continuous bed-chair-sofa-bed chain.
It is no coincidence that almost 50% of Italians between 18 and 69 years old (Istisan report of 2018) are considered chronically sedentary or partially active. Istat estimated them some time ago in 23 million people. 30% of these are clinically overweight or obese. Not only: a sedentary lifestyle particularly affects the third age: the elderly do little physical activity, eat little fruit and vegetables and 4 out of 10 struggle with the balance, especially as they get older. So that, among the over 65s, weight problems affect almost 6 out of 10 people. It is a situation that costs 14 billion euros a year, taken from taxes and intended to pay for the care of diseases easily preventable with physical activity. In this period of isolation and fewer incentives to leave the house the bill is likely to increase and leave us a salty legacy, linked not only to Covid-19 but also to the unhealthy routines that the dematerialization of relationships and work relationships has produced in our lives.
It is not enough. Italy is the European country with the highest number of obese children, equal to one every three between 6 and 9 years. A condition, that of childhood obesity, which predisposes to diabetes, acute myocardial infarction, tumors and osteoporosis already in early adulthood, an age of life in which these diseases they would have no reason to exist.
These are themes of which, from 3 February and for four Wednesday mornings (starting from 9 on www.mobilitars.eu, free access), will be held mobilitARS, an online meeting organized by Bikenomist with Selle Royal Group, for investigate the dynamics and good practices of the cities of the future that guarantee, among other things, a reduction in the accident rate and an improvement in air quality. All aspects related, such as a sedentary lifestyle, to health in its broadest and most virtuous meaning. An ambitious challenge in a climate and health emergency context: imagine and plan healthy and resilient cities for the well-being of people, reprogramming the mobility and management of urban spaces starting from a historical moment in which the mobility of people is modified and often highly reduced by the pandemic. Among the guests Luca Mercalli (Italian Meteorological Society), Francesca Racioppi (WHO), Father Joshua Kureethedam, (Department for Integral Human Development of the Holy See), the Minister of the Environment Sergio Costa (awaiting confirmation) and numerous exponents of the world of academia and cities, from Copenhagen to Rimini, from Rome to Valencia.
Beating a sedentary lifestyle means motivate yourself to exercise, of course (and unfortunately 60% of Italians do not practice correct and regular physical activity and therefore are at risk), but also have urban contexts available that favor and incentivize it. Moving stimulates numerous functions in the nervous system. How? For example, it produces the release of particular anti-inflammatory peptides which has the effect of strengthening the brain’s defenses against free radicals. Moreover stimulates oxygenation of the brain, which results in an improvement in memory and thought functions. It then provokes an alteration of the states of consciousness, refining attention and improving mindfulness (the so-called flow state). During physical activity, neutrotransmitters such as endorfine, neurotropine ed endocannabinoidi which have a modulating effect on mood, generating states of euphoria that allow you to effectively fight anxiety and depression, a very fundamental mechanism in this long phase. During physical activity, a hormone is also released, defined Brain derived grown factor (BDGF), which produces a real growth (like a kind of hypertrophy) of the brain. Bdgf has been seen to have a direct effect on brain neuroplasticity, on strengthening of the myelin sheath (a protection of the axon of the neuron, which allows a faster transmission of nerve impulses) e improves synaptic connections. Finally, the calming effect of endorphins is often referred to as runner’s high, ie the “runner’s high”. But in addition to the topic of endorphins, physical activity allows you to enter a state of consciousness that psychologists define as “flow”. The flow, a term coined by the Hungarian psychologist Mihály Csikszentmihalyi, is a state of mind in which attention is directed only on the activity we are performing. A moment in which concentration is maximum and effort is minimal. In martial arts this state of mind is called “mu-shin”, mind without chains. The wrestler is focused but devoid of thoughts that interrupt his movement.
«It is the time of the builders, as the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella said in his year-end speech. The pandemic has confronted us with major changes in our lives and in the way we live our cities – he explains Paolo Pinzuti, CEO of Bikenomist – the ways of working, relating and individual and collective preferences, financial availability, being together have changed. We will not return to 2019, so the challenge that awaits us is organize ourselves individually and collectively to be happy and healthy in this new life and as we face other challenges. Because, once Covid is over, the climate crisis will still be there waiting for us, as will air pollution, resource depletion and biodiversity loss, but the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle on people’s physical and mental health will also remain that smart working and lockdowns have sharpened. This is why it is urgent to rethink our cities, to the way in which we live and move, with a transversal and interdisciplinary perspective ».
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