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Switch 30 mins of social media for exercise to reap mental health benefits – study

13/09/2022

By replacing 30 minutes of daily social media use with physical activity, you will feel happier, new research suggests. According to the new study, switching social media for exercise for just two weeks can have a positive impact. The research team from the Mental Health Research and Treatment Center at Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Germany, headed up by assistant professor Julia Brailovskaia, Ph.D., reported that participants who swapped social media for exercise felt more satisfied, less depressed, and less stressed by the COVID-19 pandemic than their peers in a control group. Furthermore, the positive effects of the two-week period lasted for up to six months after the study concluded. “Given that we don’t know for certain how long the coronavirus crisis will last, we wanted to know how to protect people’s mental health with services that are as free and low-threshold as possible,” Brailovskaia said in a statement. “This shows us how vital it is to reduce our availability online from time to time and to go back to our human roots,” she added. “These measures can be easily implemented into one’s everyday life and they’re completely free – and, at the same time, they help us to stay happy and healthy in the digital age.” *image courtesy of Irina L from Pixabay 

A one-week social media break helps reduce anxiety, depression - study

09/05/2022

It's become a ubiquitous part of most people's lives, but social media could be driving feelings of anxiety and depression, and taking a break from it for just one week can be beneficial, new research shows. According to the study, which is published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, people who stopped using social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for seven days reported an increased sense of well-being. Moreover, some said they got back around nine hours in their week that they would have otherwise spent scrolling such platforms. “Scrolling social media is so ubiquitous that many of us do it almost without thinking from the moment we wake up to when we close our eyes at night,” Jeff Lambert, the lead study author and a health and exercise psychologist at the University of Bath, said in a statement. “We know that social media usage is huge and that there are increasing concerns about its mental health effects,” he said. “We wanted to see whether simply asking people to take a week’s break could yield mental health benefits.” The researchers now want to investigate whether other groups can benefit from taking social media breaks, including younger people and those with physical and mental health conditions. The team also wants to monitor individuals for longer than a week to see if the benefits last over time. If the results do indeed last, the study authors say we might even see social media breaks being prescribed as an option for people dealing with mental health issues. *Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Just 10 mins of exercise a day can boost your health - study

01/02/2022

Just 10 minutes of exercise a day could prolong your life, as well as save hundreds of thousands of deaths every year, new research suggests. According to the study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, if adults over 40 added 10 minutes of moderate to physical exercise to their daily routines, more than 110,000 deaths in the US alone could be prevented annually. But the benefits of exercise don't stop there. If the amount of physical activity was increased by 30 minutes, even more lives – as many as 272,297 – could be saved each year. “We have known that regular exercise is essential and has tremendous health benefits,” said Dr. Vanita Rahman, clinic director of the Barnard Medical Center at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a non-profit organization that promotes preventive medicine. The good news is that almost anyone can benefit because your 10 minutes of exercise could be as simple as a walk around the block or dancing to a few of your favorite songs in your kitchen. Dana Santas, a mind-body coach for professional athletes, said: “Fitting in ten minutes of exercise every day is so much easier than people think. Consider how fast ten minutes goes by when you're mindlessly scrolling social media or watching your favorite TV show. It's not a big time investment, but it can deliver big health benefits.” *Image by Mabel Amber, who will one day from Pixabay

Belief in fake cancer causes 'rife', study warns

01/05/2018

A new study has revealed that many people in England are unsure about cancer risk factors and often incorrectly identify fake cancer causes. The survey of 1,330 people found that drinking from plastic bottles and using microwave ovens are two of the fake cancer causes people often cite. The good news is that 88% of people surveyed correctly identified smoking as a major cancer risk factor, while 80% picked passive smoking and 60% said sunburn were also causes of cancer - all of which have been proven. According to Cancer Research UK, smoking, overexposure to UV radiation and being overweight are the biggest preventable causes of cancer. In fact, the charity says that about four in 10 cases of cancer could be prevented with lifestyle changes and people need the right information to help them "separate the wheat from the chaff". Researchers from University College London and the University of Leeds conducted the survey and discovered that more than 40% of participants wrongly thought that stress and food additives caused cancer. Dr Samuel Smith from the University of Leeds said: "It's worrying to see so many people endorse risk factors for which there is no convincing evidence. "Compared to past research, it appears the number of people believing in unproven causes of cancer has increased since the start of the century, which could be a result of changes to how we access news and information through the internet and social media." Clare Hyde, from Cancer Research UK, said: "There is no guarantee against getting cancer - but by knowing the biggest risk factors we can stack the odds in our favour to help reduce our individual risk of the disease, rather than wasting time worrying about fake news."

Children's online time should be regulated by parents like ‘junk food’ consumption

08/08/2017

Parents should be proactive in preventing their children from bingeing on the internet during the summer holidays. That’s the plea from the Children’s Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, as she launches a campaign to help parents regulate their children’s internet use. With web usage at an all-time high among children, Longfield has criticised the methods used by social media giants to draw children into spending more time staring at tablets and smartphones. She said: "It's something that every parent will talk about especially during school holidays; that children are in danger of seeing social media like sweeties, and their online time like junk food. "None of us as parents would want our children to eat junk food all the time. "For those same reasons we shouldn't want our children to do the same with their online time." According to industry watchdog Ofcom, last year, the internet overtook television as the most popular media pastime for children in the UK, with kids aged five to 15 spending 15 hours a week online. Longfield added that when smartphones, games and social media make us feel worried, stressed and out of control, it means we haven’t got the balance right.

Always connected individuals more stressed than their counterparts

10/07/2017

While it’s impossible to deny that technology has transformed the way in which we live our lives, not all of the effects are always positive. According to the American Psychological Association’s Stress in America Survey 2017, a staggering proportion (99%) of adults own electronic devices. In fact, the survey shows that around 86% of adults own a computer; 74% own a smartphone; and 55% own a tablet. As you would expect with figures such as these, the percentage of adults using social media has also significantly increased. In 2005, 7% of adults were active on social media. By 2015, that number had skyrocketed to 65% (90% for adults aged between 18 and 29). However, the survey also found that 43% of American adults had become what is known as “constant checkers” – people who constantly (almost obsessively) check their emails, text and social media accounts The problem is that stress levels for constant checkers are considerably higher than they are for “normal” people. For example, 42% of constant checkers worry about how social media affects their physical and mental health. In comparison, only 27% of non-constant checkers have the same worry. Are you a constant checker? If you are, perhaps it’s time you put your smartphone down and underwent a digital detox.

France Surgery: Getting Social in China

03/07/2014

Branching outside of our European confines, France Surgery have recently moved into the Chinese social media scene with profiles and activity on QQ and Weibo. China has an internet usage population of 591 million, so it’s no surprise that we see the benefit of getting social in this growing market. Both QQ and Weibo are comparable to Facebook and Google+, with users growing daily. We enjoy interacting with their users who are keen to find out more about France Surgery and our range of services. If you’re active on either one of these sites, connect with us! We’d love to hear from you and most importantly give you access to all our latest news and articles. Look forward to connecting with you soon!

Get Social with France Surgery

11/03/2014

France Surgery is a private health company with over 20 years’ experience in the medical sector. We know healthcare, so you are always assured of top level care, treatment and advice from our team of highly qualified medical professionals. But in these modern times we also understand that you, our patients, want to get to know us better. Find out what makes us tick and decide for yourself whether we’re the right choice for your healthcare needs. Of course we are … but we would say that! So why not stay up-to-date on all our latest news by connecting with us through one (or more) of our social media channels? And then when you do, talk to us. Send us a tweet via Twitter, a message via Facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn, or leave your comments on our YouTube channel. We’ll happily answer any questions or respond to any comments you may have. Looking forward to connecting with you soon.

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