Avoid depression and boost heart health.. The psychological and health benefits of watching football matches

 The psychological and health benefits of watching football matches

Avoid depression and boost heart health.. The psychological and health benefits of watching football matches

Other than the fun you get while watching football matches and cheering for your favorite team, did you know that you also achieve many health and psychological benefits? Here are the highlights:

Benefits of watching football

ward off the dangers of depression and loneliness

To reduce the risk of depression and loneliness, watching football matches is one way to maintain optimism and high spirits. By watching matches, most of us find an escape from thinking about the stresses of daily life, and studies have found that those who follow sports activities in general are less likely to develop depression than others.

According to scholarlyoa, it has been proven that watching matches can induce a sense of happiness and relaxation in the viewer.

Watching the matches can also help increase the sense of achievement and victory if your favorite team does well on the field.

Its health benefits

 Researchers have proven that watching football has a positive effect on the heart and blood vessels in the human body, according to pharmanewsonline.

Scientific research conducted in 2019 by BV Gaming Limited, formerly BetVictor Limited, in partnership with the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Leeds, shows that watching football matches is beneficial for health.

In their quest to discover the true effects of what watching football does to the body, BV Gaming Limited has commissioned biology and psychology researchers from the University of Leeds to follow Leeds football fans across three major matches in 2019. What happened to a group of Leeds United fans ranging from Their ages range from 20 to 62 years (average age - 22 years).

Researchers ranked fans by the number of years they had been supporting Leeds - less than 10 and between 20-30 and 40+, and the research tracked three main factors as part of their study: heart rate, blood pressure and mood.

Participants wore heart rate monitors for the duration of each game. Blood pressure was measured two days before each match to give the baseline, as it was measured immediately before the match, during the first half and after the final whistle.

A mood questionnaire was also provided to the participants and interviewed after each match to be part of the psychoanalysis.

In the end, the results showed that there was a clear rise in the participants' heart rate for the duration of the matches. On average, participants' heart rates increased by 17 percent versus baseline. Scientists classify this elevation in heart rate as "positive stress" and is beneficial for overall health.

However, you should be careful while watching the matches, especially if you are a smoker or suffer from heart disease, as doctors warn in these cases of a dangerous rise in your heart rate.

Promotes belonging to the community

According to sociologists, watching sports matches is important because it increases the percentage of belonging to society. Professor Daniel Wan of Murray State University says this feeling has positive benefits for our mental health. For example, if you're walking down the street wearing your favorite team's jersey, a fan might also stop you to chat about the team's performance. Such behaviors reinforce group belonging and strengthen bonds between people.

In addition, football matches may succeed in many cases by filling the gap between generations, as it is a sport that adults and children agree in love with, so watching it has social benefits as well as psychological and health benefits.

Improved social communication

According to firsttouchonline, many football followers have reported that they prefer watching the match with others rather than watching it alone even if others are not supporting the same team.

There is no doubt that the interest in football creates grounds for discussion with others, whether we agree with them or not. Many people like to talk about betting on the winning team, analyzing what happened in the match and what will happen in the upcoming matches. This guarantees days and even weeks of lengthy discussions on this subject. With every tournament, and according to experts, this is one of the reasons why football is a great way to enhance social contact between people.