Physical Activity, Sports Medicine, and Prevention of Diseases
A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Global Health".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2022)
Special Issue Editor
Interests: sports medicine; echocardiography; general cardiology; prevention; health promotion; cardiovascular physiology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Physical inactivity is the biggest public health problem of the 21st century. Sedentary behaviour and low physical activity lead to negative telomere length changes, increased intima thickness in the carotid artery, and one of the main factors for metabolic syndrome: obesity. Physical inactivity is thought to be responsible for up to 25% of all breast and colorectal cancer cases, up to 27% of diabetes mellitus, and up to 30% of ischemic coronary heart disease cases.
Thus, it is imperative to provide settings to support an active lifestyle because physical activities improve health, prevent atherosclerosis, and prolong life. The idea of health promotion is growing, and in many countries, we can see positive results on health already. Accordingly, a task for public authorities is to create healthy cities with opportunities for physical activities, such as bicycle tracks, paths for physical activities, green spaces, and community gymnastics facilities. If at least one traffic-free street is created in every town, many young and older people alike will gladly move in and around the city on their own. However, if we design cities mainly for car traffic (for historical and economic reasons), physical activities will decrease. It is appalling that “the coverage of transport hides the traffic reality of millions of people” because up to 97% of newspaper reports focus on cars, and only 3% of them address public transport, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic. For example, only 3% of all city routes in Berlin may be used by cyclists, serving as safe and proper ways, and 58% of Berlin roads belong to motorists.
Additionally, due to environmental pollution, it is time to rethink transport. Carefully thought-out and modified bikeways allow all forms of movement. In addition to the measures for enhancing purely physical activities, steps to improve cognition are indispensable. These steps include education, physical exercises, drug counselling services, possibilities for social contact, and training groups to support cognition. All measures would be helpful to prevent various forms and causes of dementia. Because of their complexity, mental health problems cannot be fully discussed in one paper and require more separate articles. The most important aspect remains to provide possibilities for improving physical activities as the “polypill of the century”. To achieve this goal, balanced integration of private and public forces will undoubtedly be necessary, with a sense of economic reality in mind.
This Special Issue on “Physical Activity, Sports Medicine and Prevention of Diseases” will serve as a forum to discuss all themes regarding physical activity and the prevention of metabolic/cardiovascular diseases, cancer diseases, and mental health/cognition.
Sports/exercise medicine’s influence on individual health (all individuals: athletes and non-athletes) may be discussed and can start a controversial debate rich in ideas or visions. All papers, including prospective studies, reports, and reviews, are welcome.
Prof. Dr. Roman Leischik
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- physical activity
- sports medicine
- exercise medicine
- metabolic syndrome
- diabetes mellitus
- cardiovascular diseases
- cancer diseases
- cognition
- mental health
- prevention
- healthy cities
- health promotion
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