This year 146 people have participated in the Sport2Live programme, 72% more than in 2023.

The councillor for Health closes a conference to highlight the benefits of tackling mental health problems through physical exercise

The councillor of Health, Manuela García, closed the conference ‘Sport and physical exercise with emotional wellbeing’ which, organised by the Directorate General of Mental Health, the Health Service, the UIB and the Directorate General of Sports, was held at the university campus to promote sport as a therapeutic tool to improve emotional disorders.

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Health promotes the improvement of emotional disorders through sport

The conference, inaugurated by the director general of the Health Service, Javier Ureña, also featured the participation of Olympic medallists and world champions in synchronised swimming and race walking, Gemma Mengual and María Vasco, respectively, in a round table discussion in which, among other issues, they addressed the role of mental health in high-performance competition.

The Regional Minister for Health welcomed the event because ‘the practice of sport favours the recovery and reintegration of patients with mental disorders. Because sport reinforces fundamental values such as willpower, sacrifice, team spirit and the culture of effort and work well done, which will help us to overcome mental disorders’.

Otsuka Pharmaceutical S.A., which finances a multidisciplinary approach to these increasingly prevalent psychological problems, stresses that ‘we have always considered physical exercise as a fundamental part of the recovery process for many illnesses. That is why we are delighted to contribute to the organisation of initiatives that promote sport, especially among people who are going through an oncological process or who suffer from pathologies related to mental health’.

The meeting also saw the presentation of Sport2Live, an initiative that promotes health programmes, exercise and sports to tackle mental pathologies in a different way, by Eduardo Torras Híjar, president, and Maria Rovira Font, vice president for sport, respectively, of the Sport2Live Foundation, as well as a participant in the programme who told how doing moderate physical activity regularly has benefited her mentally.

This programme began in April 2021 at Son Llàtzer Hospital and has since been extended to Inca Hospital (May 2022), to two-day centres in Menorca (Sant Miquel and Sa Platja Gran, July 2022), to Can Misses Hospital (November 2023) and, more recently, to Son Espases hospital, which focuses on children and young people, and to the Manacor regional hospital.

In 2024, 146 people participated in the programme, attended by 19 multidisciplinary professionals such as psychiatrists, psychologists, occupational therapists, social educators, nutritionists and nurses. Proof of its success is that, compared to 2023, when 85 patients agreed to participate in the programme, the number of participants has increased by almost 72%.

It has been proven that some of the mental benefits of sports include the following:

It helps the body to readapt itself with new techniques that lighten and reduce stress levels. Experts recommend 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week or 75 minutes of high-intensity aerobic exercise.

Exercising in moderation helps to improve the quality of sleep and helps to combat insomnia. It is important to take care of your sleep habits in order to get a good night’s rest and for your body to make the corresponding physiological changes to be able to recover from the daily wear and tear.

Physical activity allows us to work on values such as perseverance, teamwork, overcoming challenges and self-discipline, thus improving our behaviour.

It increases brain capacity and concentration. Physical exercise stimulates the hippocampus area and this improves our capacity to retain information.

Practising sport helps to keep away negative emotions such as sadness, improving our mood and achieving greater emotional stability.

Practising sport works on the balance between mind and body. This helps to have a greater emotional well-being, which improves performance and productivity.

It avoids social isolation and improves social relations and self-esteem.

It helps to combat and control addictions and other mental disorders.