- How physical fitness spurs school success. Children who are physically fit absorb and retain new information more effectively than children who are out of shape, a new study finds.
Physical activity helps young people to pay attention in school and
at home, with salutary effects on academic performance. A representative
study, presented in May at American College of Sports Medicine, found
that fourth and fifth grade students who ran around and otherwise
exercised vigorously for at lest 10 minutes before a maths test scored
higher than children who had sat quietly before the exam. In another
large scale study published in The Journal of Pediatrics, a researcher
compiled each student’s physical fitness, as measured by a timed run,
body mass index and academic achievement in English and maths. Better
physical fitness proved to be linked to significantly higher achievement
scores.
Related articles:
1. Health-related fitness and academic achievement in middle school students.
Coe DP, Pivarnik JM, Womack CJ, Reeves MJ, Malina RM.:J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2012 Dec;52(6):654-60
This study found that the health
related fitness was related to academic achievement in youth. Students
with the highest fitness level performed better on standardized tests
and
students with the lowest fitness level performed lower in class grades.
2. Physical fitness and academic performance in middle school students.
Bass RW, Brown DD, Laurson KR, Coleman MM. Acta Paediatr. 2013 Aug;102(8):832-7.
This study concluded that aerobic
capacity and muscular endurance positively affect academic achievement
in middle school students.
3. Need to screen the school adolescents for overweight/obesity and hypertension:
Adolescence is the period of psychological and social transition from
childhood to adulthood. It is important that teenagers be screened for
adequacy of nutritional and health status. Although the prevalence of
hypertension during childhood is lower than that seen in adulthood, this
condition is not rare in adolescent, thus stressing the importance of
evaluating BP. Read more.
4. Younger age of escalation of cardiovascular risk factors in Asian Indian subjects.
Rajeev Gupta, Anoop Misra, Naval K Vikram, Dimple Kondal, Shaon Sen Gupta, Aachu Agrawal, and RM Pandey: BMC Cardiovasc Disord. 2009; 9: 28. 1186/1471-2261-9-28
This study was conducted in North
India in 1999–2002. The study concluded that there was low prevalence
of multiple cardiovascular risk factors (smoking, hypertension,
dyslipidemias, diabetes and metabolic syndrome) in adolescents,
however, a rapid escalation of these risk factors was observed by the
age of 30–39 years in urban Asian Indians. Interventions should focus on
these individuals.
5. Outdoor physical activity & cardiovascular health.
S. Sivasankaran: J Med Res. Aug 2012; 136(2): 301–303.
This
study concluded that amongst Indian adolescent women, two behavioural
risk factors viz. unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity lay the
foundation for four major non-communicable diseases, namely, diabetes,
cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis and cancer. These diseases form
the major reason for more than 50 per cent of morbidity and mortality in
their life course. This study also stresses the need for outdoor
physical activity to improve the vitamin D status. Outdoor physical
activity is the best way to overcome many of these abnormalities.
Exercise builds muscles and bones, buffers the insult of high calorie
nutrition and is the key for healthy ageing. No wonder, atherosclerosis
is not a natural disease of animals, they remain physically active,
indulge in natural foods and do not cover their body from the sun.
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