The medicinal plants knowledge and the physical activity level both improved the life´s quality

Abstract

The popular knowledge about medicinal plants and the physical activity (PA) practice were the therapeutic strategies use by the first civilizations for a better quality of life. However, the industrialization process disarticulated its transfer and contributed to increase chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between knowledge about medicinal plants and the PA level with daily feed habits. Two free online google and printed questionnaires were applied to 175 participants (mean 30.74 ± 12.7, interval between 17 and 77 age). The first questionnaire investigated knowledge about medicinal plants and some daily feed habits. The second was the International PA Questionnaire (IPAQ), which assesses the weekly PA intensity as mild, moderate and vigorous. We observed that older individuals had greater knowledge about medicinal plants (p = 0.017; R = 0.181). Knowledge about medicinal plants was related to: preference for natural products (p = 0.08); no soda ingestion (p = 0.008) and individual physical activity (p = 0.016). The moderate level of PA had a positive relationship with medicinal plants knowledge (p = 0.023; R = 0.792). These results showed a discontinuity in transfering traditional knowledge to next generations, indicating a need to recover healthy habits such as moderate PA practice, unprocessed food ingestion and medicinal plants use to obtain an improvement in the quality of life. These habits contribute to immediate and long-term health benefits, reducing risks related to the disease’s development.