Category: Mental Health

Adult learners reported feeling greater satisfaction with their lives along with improved mental and physical health.

Classes in singing, crafts and creative writing all boost wellbeing, a series of three studies concludes.

Weekly sessions over seven months at all three subjects left people feeling in better mental and physical health.

Dr Eiluned Pearce, the first author of all three studies, said:

“The students reported benefits including increased self-confidence, a greater feeling of control over their lives and more willingness to take on new challenges.

Some said the classes made them more motivated to be more active, despite the classes not specifically involving physical activity.

Participants also said that the classes broadened their networks of friends and gave them an increased sense of belonging.

We also found that the more someone felt part of their group, the more their health and wellbeing improved.”

Participants in the study attended seven different day-time adult education classes in the UK.

While the results were positive, the classes did not all have the same benefits, Dr Pearce explained:

“The results showed that those in the singing and creative writing groups built up relationships with other individuals more quickly than the crafters, and singers felt more connected to the class as a whole more quickly than both the other groups.

‘While this confirms our earlier finding that singing has an ‘ice-breaker effect’ compared to other activities, it shows that other activities may enable people to increase their social networks just as much, even if it takes them longer to feel connected to their group as a whole.”

Howard Croft, the Worker’s Educational Association Regional Education Manager, said:

“The findings reiterate the feedback that we have had from our students over the years: learning is a fantastic way to boost your self-esteem and confidence.

Also of note, is its therapeutic effect.

For many students, creative courses are a means of finding a new outlet for expressing their feelings.

This can be of immense help during times of personal difficulty or emotional upheaval, such as divorce or bereavement.

Simply going to a course can offer much-needed respite.

For others, learning can be an opportunity to reignite a former passion.

This could be anything from a subject which you enjoyed at school to an area which you are interested in.

Whatever your reason, there are so many benefits to be gained by signing up to a course.”

The studies were published in the journals Arts & Health, The Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology and Psychology of Music (Pearce et al., 2016; Pearce et al. 2016; Pearce et al. 2016).

How coffee consumption is linked to both mental and physical health.

Moderate coffee consumption is linked to reduced depression risk and lower levels of Parkinson’s and dementia, research finds.

Not only that, but the review of more than 200 studies found that drinking 3 to 4 cups of coffee a day is linked to many other benefits.

These include lower levels of heart disease, reduced risk of some cancers, diabetes and liver disease.

The study’s authors write:

“Coffee consumption was consistently associated with a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease, even after adjustment for smoking, and across all categories of exposure.

Decaffeinated coffee was associated with a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease, which did not reach significance.

Consumption had a consistent association with lower risk of depression and cognitive disorders, especially for Alzheimer’s disease.”

Coffee was also associated with a lower risk of several cancers:

• prostate cancer,
• endometrial cancer,
• skin cancer,
• and liver cancer,

Risk of type 2 diabetes, gallstones and gout was lower in those drinking coffee as well.

Coffee’s apparent effect was particularly strong for liver conditions, such as cirrhosis.

The evidence for drinking decaffeinated coffee was not as strong.

So, if you don’t drink coffee already, should you start?

Writing in a linked commentary, Professor Eliseo Guallar, an expert in public health, gives the answer:

“Should doctors recommend drinking coffee to prevent disease?

Should people start drinking coffee for health reasons?

The answer to both questions is “no.” “

But if you do already drink coffee, then how much should you drink?

Professor Guallar explained:

“…the lowest risk of disease is associated with drinking three to five cups of coffee a day.

Higher intake may reduce or reverse the potential benefit, and there is substantial uncertainty, both in individual studies and in meta-analyses, about the effects of higher levels of intake.

Conclusions on the safety of coffee should thus be restricted to moderate intake, generally considered as ≤400 mg of caffeine a day (about four or five coffee drinks).”

The research was an ‘umbrella review’ which is a kind of review of the reviews.

It aggregates data from lots of different studies including many participants.

However, the way the studies were designed, it cannot tell us that drinking coffee causes these health benefits.

It just tells us there is a link to be explained.

The study was published in The British Medical Journal (Poole et al., 2017).