Vol. 26 No. 281 (2021)

Sport and environmental health
There is an almost undisputed truth that affirms that physical activity and sport are necessary, almost essential to achieve and maintain good health. But this is not the case in all situations. There are many situations in which the imperative need to triumph in high performance levels threatens health to the point that the body is strained with high levels of risk for the integrity of athletes. At the same time, an excess of physical exercise can be very harmful.
The benefits of these practices are undeniable when they are carried out on a voluntary basis, with educational, recreational or therapeutic criteria with proper guidance and professional advice. But today it is claimed that what we conceive as health and disease is not merely medical or biological but is determined by social and therefore political processes.
In this sense, to achieve a healthy condition, multiple factors must be taken into account. Both the physical and social environment that surrounds us are decisive in our well-being. Fulfilling human rights without discrimination, assuring sanitary conditions, access to drinking water, toxic-free food, availability of free time, having activities and work relationships and emotional ties with other people or groups, allow a more comprehensive and complex point of view to always keep in mind.
Tulio Guterman, Director - October 2021

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