The evidence keeps on coming – combining your clinical career and #ADVENTURE is #GOOD for you!
A recent article in BMC Psychiatry highlights the positive mental impact of combining your clinical career with adventure.
There has been a recent swarth of well-researched article and papers highlighting the health benefits, both physical and mental, of adventure on patients.
However, we are all very well aware that being a medical professional carries with it its own burden of mental health stresses and pressures, so assessing the work/life balance for us is increasingly important too.
Anecdotally we at World Extreme Medicine have been aware for many years how beneficial being an expedition medic can be to both your mental health but also your career. Taking your medical skills to remote areas increases your ability to think outside the box, to innovate. It also helps to develop teamworking skills, mental robustness, empathy and also brings back to your regular workplace new procedures and an greater appreciation for the resources of a modern healthcare system.
The paper in the BMC Psychiatry focuses on ‘Indoor rock climbing (bouldering) as a new treatment for depression: study design of a waitlist-controlled randomized group pilot study and the first results’ but the extrapolation is clear.
Depression is one of the most common diseases world- wide with a one-year prevalence of 3.2 % according to the WHO World Health Survey 2007 [1]. It is one of the chronic illnesses thatauses the greatest decrement in health [1]. In recent decades, there has been growing evidence [2–10] that physical activity has an important influence on mood, and thus, it has been proposed as a potential treatment for depression… <#readmore>