Some positives from lockdown

All is not doom and gloom since the UK pressed the pause button due to coronavirus. Here are some unforeseen health benefits that have come from the Covid-19 lockdown…

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We’ve got cleaner air

As we’ve been out in our cars less air pollution is significantly down. Levels of harmful nitrogen dioxide have fallen by 36 per cent and PM10 particulates by nine per cent compared to this time last year. Which has led to fewer premature births, asthma attacks and news cases of asthma, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. They estimate this had already saved 1,752 lives in the UK by late April.

We’re smoking less

300,000 people have given up smoking and a further 550,000 are trying to quit, according to research by YouGov and Action on Smoking and Health.

We’re drinking less

One in three of us has completely stopped drinking, or reduced how often they drink since lockdown began, according to research by Alcohol Change UK.

We’re eating better

Almost one in three people say their diet has improved during lockdown, according to research commissioned for food manufacturer Flora. We’re tending prepare fresh food more and turning more to plant-based meals. According to a survey by the environmental charity Hubbub, 57 per cent of us are placing a higher value on food and 43 per cent enjoying it more.

We’re on our bikes!

You only have to go out of the door to see that levels of cycling are up massively around the New Forest – and they are countrywide too. Applications for the government cycle-to-work scheme, which allows employers to loan bikes to workers tax-free, have gone up. And bike traffic in Bournemouth and Poole was found to be up 250 per cent when it was tracked one day in April by Vivacity Labs.

We’ve had less flu

While we were all hunkered down in our homes through the end of March and April flu transmission practically ceased. The number of people needing intensive care treatment in hospital due to flu was around half that of the two previous seasons.

Material adapted from an article in The Daily Telegraph

If you’ve been under so much stress or not been able to get out to do daily exercise so that, unlike the statistics, you have not managed to drink less and eat more healthily, and so piled on the kilos, our NLP practitioner Shelley Edwards has a wonderful weight loss mentoring programme to get you back on track.

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