AI summary
Summary of article:
A latest study tracking British elderly people found that those who walked briskly on a daily basis had a lower risk of death. However, experts remind that this is only one of the health indicators, and it cannot be directly inferred that brisk walking can extend life.
A new study shows that a person’s walking speed reflects their overall health and longevity. The faster you move, the lower your mortality rate. Because walking fast requires the brain and the nervous system that coordinates your heart, lungs, balance, and legs, changes in walking speed can provide clues about a person’s health.
Fox News reported that a study published in “JAMA Network Open” tracked 4,067 British elderly people with an average age of 69 to understand whether their daily walking speed was related to long-term death risk. Subjects completed a short-distance walking test at a normal pace and wore a wrist activity tracker for nine days to record their walking speed in daily life.
Over nearly 12 years of follow-up, a faster walking pace was associated with a lower risk of death in both cases, even when researchers took other health and lifestyle factors into account; A total of 739 participants died during the study.
Beth Templin, a geriatric clinical expert in St. Louis, said walking speed may reflect body function more broadly. He said that in physical therapy, walking speed is called the “sixth vital sign” because it can reflect the body’s different systems working together. Templin was not involved in the study.
So changes in walking speed can serve as clues to a person’s health, Templin said. Running fast requires strong legs, a healthy heart and lungs, good balance, and a brain and nervous system that can coordinate them.
When gait speed begins to decline, it’s often an early warning that one of these systems is declining, Templin said, sometimes even before lab results come back.
For senior citizens who want to improve their walking speed and overall health, simply increasing their walking speed may not be enough. To make fitness not just a habit, many people try to take more steps, but the speed comes from strength and balance, Templin said.
Templin recommends strengthening your feet through simple exercises, such as standing up from a chair with the help of hands, or holding on to a countertop to raise heels. She also recommends brisk walking for short periods of time. After warming up, you can walk fast for one minute and then walk slowly for two minutes. Repeat this process and gradually increase the time of brisk walking.
It is worth noting that Tamplin said that the findings of the above study do not mean that only brisk walking can increase life span. He said the study results show a link between the two, but cannot prove that brisk walking can increase lifespan.
The study team noted that participants in the experiment were healthier than the general population, and that more research is needed to know whether their findings apply to other ethnic groups.
Summary FAQ
-
Research shows that the faster an older person walks, the lower their long-term risk of death. After tracking for more than 10 years, the research team found that this relationship still existed when other health and life factors were included.
-
Because walking fast requires heart, lungs, leg strength, balance and coordination of the brain and nervous system. When walking speed decreases, this can often be an early warning that a certain system in the body is beginning to decline.
-
Experts recommend not only increasing the number of steps, but also improving strength and balance, such as standing up from a chair without armrests, holding on to the countertop for calf raises, and adding short-term alternations of fast walking and slow walking to gradually increase the time of walking.
