Strategies to deal with stress in men who practice extreme skiing

Ekstremalne narciarstwo staje się coraz popularniejsze. W porównaniu z tradycyjnym narciarstwem jest specjalnie ukierunkowane na doświadczanie przez zawodników swoistego rodzaju emocji oraz poczucia ryzyka. Również uprawianie tego rodzaju sportu daje więcej wrażeń niż tradycyjne rekreacyjne narciarstwo. W założeniu teoretycznym sam sport ekstremalny oraz uczestnicy aktywności sportowej określanej jako ekstremalna biorą pod uwagę ryzyko oraz gotowość na doświadczanie stresu. W niniejszym artykule autorzy porównują radzenie sobie ze stresem wśród dwóch grup narciarzy („ekstremalnych” i „rekreacyjnych”). Badanych było 54 narciarzy płci męskiej w wieku 30–45 lat z minimum 15-letnim narciarskim doświadczeniem. Zastosowane zostały wywiad z zawodnikami odnoszący się do preferowanego stylu życia oraz Kwestionariusz COPE – Wielowymiarowego Inwentarza do Pomiaru Radzenia Sobie ze Stresem (autorstwa C.S. Carvera, M.F. Scheiera, J.K. Weintrauba) w celu ustalenia dominujących stylów radzenia sobie ze stresem (skoncentrowane na celach, koncentracja na emocjach oraz zachowania unikowe). Rezultaty badań wskazują, że wśród wszystkich narciarzy dominuje aktywny styl radzenia sobie ze stresem skoncentrowany na celu, jednak w porównaniu do narciarzy rekreacyjnych wyższe wyniki są wśród narciarzy ekstremalnych. Różnica jest istotna statycznie, na poziomie 0,05.Extreme skiing is growing in popularity. This kind of sport is designed to expose athletes to greater thrills and risks than are found in traditional sporting activities. Also practicing this sport gives you more emotional experience in extreme than the traditional cultivation of recreational skiing activities. Theoretical perspectives on extreme sports and extreme sport participants have assumed that participation is about risk‐taking and stress exposure. In this paper we compare style of stress coping among two groups of skiers (“extreme” and “recreational”). We have examined the group of 54 male skiers ages 30 to 45 years with minimum 15 years of skiing experience). They were applied interview with the skiers relating to the preferred lifestyle and Questionnaire COPE – a Multidimensional Coping Inventory (Carver, C.S., Scheier, M.F., & Weintraub, J.K.) in order to determine the dominant styles of coping with stress (problem-focused coping, seeking of emotional support and denial-focused coping ). Results indicate that active style of coping dominated in the both groups, but the extreme skiers score higher the skiers from recreational group. The difference is on significance level of 0.05

O szkołach rybackich : (Broszura zbiorowa)

Seria: Biblioteka Rybacka ; nr 3

Eating and drinking habits of young London-based Irish men: a qualitative study.

This qualitative study is based on interviews with young Irish men living in London about their diets and their views on healthy eating. The data were analysed using combined thematic and discourse analysis. Interviewees gave various reasons for not adopting healthy eating habits, including the cost of healthy foods, their lack of time and ability to cook, and their prioritisation of drinking. Views about the status of different foods also affected their eating habits: they considered red meat, for instance, as ‘masculine’, while lighter foods associated with healthy diets were considered ‘feminine’

Should obesity be the main game? Or do we need an environmental makeover to combat the inflammatory and chronic disease epidemics?

There is a link between obesity and chronic disease. However, the causal relationship is complicated. Some forms of obesity are associated with low-level systemic inflammation, which is linked to disease. But lifestyle behaviours that may not necessarily cause obesity (poor diet, inadequate sleep, smoking, etc.) can independently cause inflammation and consequent disease. It is proposed here that it is the environment driving modern lifestyles, which is the true cause of much chronic disease, rather than obesity per se, and that obesity may be a marker of environmental derangement, rather than the primary cause of the problem. Attempts to clinically manage obesity alone on a large scale are therefore unlikely to be successful at the population level without significant lifestyle or environmental change. Environmental factors influencing obesity and health have now also been implicated in ecological perturbations such as climate change, through the shift to positive energy balance in humans caused by the exponential use of fossil fuels in such areas as transport, and consequent rises in carbon emissions into the atmosphere. It is proposed therefore that a more policy-based approach to dealing with obesity, which attacks the common causes of both biological and ecological ‘dis-ease’, could have positive effects on both chronic disease and environmental problems. A plea is thus made for a greater health input into discussions on environmental regulation for chronic disease control, as well as climate change