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When the head is foolish, the body suffers.

Ukrainian proverb

HealthMind

The story behind the card

The card gives a free English version of a Ukrainian proverb, “Za durnoyu holovoyu rukam i noham nemaye spokoyu”: because of a foolish head, the hands and feet get no rest. The picture is an everyday one: forget your keys and your legs must carry you back for them. German says that what the head lacks, the legs must make up for. People also use the saying of groups, when a careless decision at the top is paid for by everyone below.

Türkçe oku
Baş akılsız olunca çileyi beden çeker.
Ukrayna atasözü

Karttaki söz, bir Ukrayna atasözünün serbest çevirisidir: “Za durnoyu holovoyu rukam i noham nemaye spokoyu”, yani akılsız baş yüzünden ne ellere rahat var ne ayaklara. İmge gündelik hayattan tanıdıktır: Anahtarını unutan, onu almak için yolu bir kez daha yürür. Almancada da benzer bir söz vardır: Kafada olmayanın açığını bacaklar kapatır. Söz topluluklar için de kullanılır: Tepede düşünmeden alınan bir kararın bedelini alttaki herkes öder. Türkçede neredeyse aynısı vardır: “Akılsız başın cezasını ayaklar çeker.”

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Ukraine
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A sound mind in a sound body.

The phrase comes from the tenth Satire of the Roman poet Juvenal, written in the early 2nd century AD. The poem mocks people who pray for wealth, power, fame, beauty or a long life, since such wishes often bring ruin. If you must pray, Juvenal says, ask for “mens sana in corpore sano”, a sound mind in a sound body, and a brave heart that does not fear death. It later became a motto of sport, and in Turkey its Turkish form is often credited to Atatürk, the republic's founder.

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While you sleep, the brain strengthens what you learned during the day. This process, called memory consolidation, works both on facts, such as names and dates, and on skills, such as playing a piece of music. After a short or broken night, the brain holds on to new learning less well.

Memory consolidation is the slow process that turns a fresh, fragile memory into a lasting one, and much of it happens during sleep. In 1997 the German researchers Werner Plihal and Jan Born showed that different parts of the night help different kinds of memory. Twenty healthy men learned lists of word pairs and practised mirror tracing, drawing a shape while watching only its reflection. Recall of the word pairs improved most over the first half of the night, when deep, slow-wave sleep dominates, while the drawing skill improved most over the second half, when REM sleep, the stage of vivid dreams, lasts longer. Researchers think that during sleep the brain replays the day's experiences and moves new memories from temporary storage in the hippocampus, deep in the brain, into longer-lasting networks in its outer layer, the cortex.

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Some benefits of exercise begin on the day you do it, according to US guidance promoted by the CDC. After a single session of moderate or vigorous activity, such as a brisk walk, blood pressure can fall, anxiety can ease, and sleep that night and some kinds of thinking can improve.

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is the United States' national public health agency, founded in Atlanta in 1946. Its advice on exercise follows the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, whose second edition, published in 2018, drew on a review of the previous decade's research. Earlier advice had focused on preventing disease over the years; the new edition also listed benefits people can feel at once. Besides easing anxiety and lowering blood pressure, a single session helps the body respond to insulin, the hormone that moves sugar from the blood into cells. Most of these effects grow with regular activity, while others, such as fitness, strength and a lasting fall in blood pressure, take weeks or months. The guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week.

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The World Health Organization counts any movement that uses energy as physical activity: walking, cycling, sport, active play, housework and physical work. Its 2020 guidelines advise adults to do 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity a week, such as brisk walking, or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity, such as running, plus muscle-strengthening exercise on at least two days. In 2022 about 31% of adults worldwide, some 1.8 billion people, fell short of that. Weight is a poor guide to these benefits. The US Physical Activity Guidelines state that they are generally independent of body weight, and a 2014 analysis of ten studies found that fit people who were overweight or obese had death rates similar to fit people of normal weight, while unfit people had about twice the risk, whatever their weight.

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According to US health guidance promoted by the CDC, adults who sit less and do any amount of moderate or vigorous activity gain some health benefits. Since 2018 even a few minutes count, such as climbing a few flights of stairs; earlier advice counted only sessions of 10 minutes or more.

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans are issued by the US Department of Health and Human Services, and the CDC, the country's national public health agency, turns them into everyday advice. The first edition, in 2008, said activity had to last at least 10 minutes at a time to count, because there was too little evidence about shorter bouts. For the 2018 edition an advisory committee reviewed the newer research and concluded that activity of any length adds to the benefits. It also found that, for the risk of dying early, the biggest gain comes when an inactive person starts doing just 60 minutes a week: in the guidelines' words, some physical activity is better than none. The full target for adults remains 150 to 300 minutes of moderate activity a week, plus muscle-strengthening on two days.

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