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Throughout history, few things have inspired more ingenuity than pills, potions and promises to slow down aging. vitalityOr extend life. Yet, amidst the hype and empty claims, some golden truths remain. In 400 BC, Hippocrates, widely considered the father of modern medicine, famously said, “Walking is man’s best medicine.” After more than two millennia, science is finally catching up to that knowledge.
People who walk more than 8,000 steps a day have their risk of premature death halved compared to those who walk less than 5,000 steps – the threshold for a sedentary lifestyle. But beyond 8,000 steps, the benefits plateau, challenging the long-held belief in the magic of 10,000 steps per day.
In fact, that benchmark was born not from science, but from marketing. The 10,000 step goal originated from a Japanese advertising campaign in the 1960s featuring the world’s first commercial pedometer. manpo-iWhich literally means “10,000 step meters”.
Recently, researchers have been exploring a simple but important question: Is every step considered equal, or can walking faster – at a faster pace of more than 100 steps per minute, or about three to four miles per hour – actually give you more health benefits?
to age and cardiovascular healthThere is growing evidence that speed really does matter. Changing a daily 14-minute walk to a seven-minute brisk walk has been shown to reduce heart disease by 14 percent.
An analysis of more than 450,000 adults in the UK used genetic markers of biological age, which showed that by middle age, brisk walking throughout life reduces biological age by 16 years compared to slow walking.
A follow-up study suggested that it’s never too late to reap the benefits of brisk walking. An inactive 60-year-old woman or man was set to gain almost an extra year life expectancy By simply including a ten-minute brisk walk in your daily routine.
The power of fast walking can also be seen in its ability to predict future health outcomes. It has been shown to be a stronger predictor of the risk of dying from heart disease than traditional predictors such as blood pressure and cholesterol, while it is a more powerful predictor than many other measures of lifestyle – including diet, obesity levels and total physical activity.
In fact, perhaps one of the most informative questions a doctor can ask his patient is: “How fast is your walking speed compared to other people?”
halo of profit
But brisk walking may not provide additional benefits on all outcomes or in all contexts. For example, the benefit of brisk walking rather than moderate intensity walking in reducing cancer risk is less certain.
A recent study showed that although walking overall reduced the risk of 13 different types of cancer, brisk walking had no additional benefits. It has been observed that sitting for long periods of time with little to no pottering around has profound effects on metabolic effects.
The important thing is that walking has many benefits other than physical health. It can help brain activity, doubling creative idea output. Indeed, the systems in the brain that support memory and imagination are also the same ones that are active during whole-body activity.
Many of us already use this phenomenon, using walking to consider problems and reach solutions or insights that would otherwise remain elusive. Context is also important here, the mental health and cognitive benefits of walking are thought to be enhanced when walking in nature.
So-called “nature prescriptions” for clinical populations have used these principles to increase walking activity and improve both mental and physical health.
Physical inactivity is a major driver of the modern epidemic of chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, which are now seen in industrialized and developing economies alike. It has been estimated that targeting physical inactivity could prevent 3.9 million premature deaths annually.
However, rather than prevention, medical systems are largely based on management – people get sick and are then given drugs to treat the disease. On average, it costs $1 billion to bring a new drug to market, which despite these research and development costs, still generates large profits for shareholders, showing the health economies of scale.
If only a fraction of these costs were channeled into public health initiatives aimed at increasing walking and physical activity opportunities for all, the need for a more sophisticated medical management ecosystem might be reduced.
In short, when searching for the elixir of life, you could do worse than look at your feet.
Thomas E. Yates is Professor of Physical Activity, Sedentary Behavior and Health in the Center for Diabetes Research at the University of Leicester.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. read the original article,