Is walking speed related to longevity? Academician: Persist in walking and exercise, 4 physical benefits will come to you

Uncle Li is 67 years old this year and has been retired for several years. He heard from friends that brisk walking can exercise your body. The faster you walk, the better your health. So he insists on walking 5 kilometers every day, no matter whether it is winter or summer.

A month ago, Uncle Li began to feel a little weak in his knees and felt cool to the touch. One morning, he went for a brisk walk in the park near his home as usual, but suddenly his knees softened while going uphill, and his body instantly lost his balance. Fortunately, he was quick-witted and quickly grabbed the railing beside him, so he was not injured.

This incident made Uncle Li scared. Afterwards, he asked a few friends and found that they all had similar experiences. Uncle Li is very puzzled. Isn't walking fast to make people healthy, but why is it dangerous?

1. Walk fast, live long? research tells you

In April, a new study published in Nature's sub-journal Communications Biology found that moderate-speed walkers and fast walkers had significantly longer white blood cell telomere lengths, better health, cardiovascular disease, and greater health than slow walkers. The risk of all-cause mortality was lower .

Why does walking speed reflect physical fitness?

This is because walking is a simple, accessible physical activity suitable for people of all ages, with numerous physical, mental and social health benefits and minimal side effects. At the same time, walking speed is related to various physical factors such as motor nerve function, muscle coordination, cardiorespiratory fitness , etc., which can reflect a certain health condition.

Therefore, walking speed is often used as one of the research indicators of human health. Clinically, doctors also use walking speed to assist in judging the recovery of certain patients.

2. Is it useful to deliberately exercise walking speed?

So does this mean that we have to deliberately exercise our walking speed? Let's look down.

In fact, in real life, it is difficult to find two populations with exactly the same health status to study, and there is no guarantee that their behavior and environment are exactly the same. Therefore, the above research results can only show that " there is a correlation between walking speed and longevity ", and cannot deduce a causal relationship . The researchers also emphasized that this benefit was not related to total activity , and that people who walked fast did not necessarily live longer .

The real factor that affects longevity is the health of the body, such as body fat or thin, whether there is an infectious disease or chronic disease .

In addition, the study participants were middle-aged and elderly with an average age of 56.5 years , which means that for older people, walking faster than others may be associated with longer lifespan. But for young people, the link between walking speed and longevity is unproven, with some people walking fast at age 20 but may be significantly slower by age 50.

3. Walking and exercising, there are so many benefits

Although the walking speed does not need to be exercised, it does not mean that the exercise of walking is not beneficial. Academician Zhang Boli said in an interview that he insisted on walking and exercising every day for 20 years. He believes that walking is the best exercise for the elderly.

Source: CCTV

Specifically, walking exercise has these benefits:

1. Helps control blood sugar

Walking exercise can improve the body's sensitivity to insulin, improve skeletal muscle function, increase glycogen consumption, help diabetic patients better control blood sugar and prevent related complications. Diabetics can take a walk or brisk walk around the community for about 30 minutes in the morning or after dinner.

2. Helps control blood pressure

A study in the Journal of Clinical Hypertension (DOI: 10.1111/jch.14340) showed that after 3 months of brisk walking, most participants' blood pressure decreased by about 2 to 3 mmHg. Walking exercise, especially brisk walking, is a very suitable aerobic exercise for middle-aged and elderly hypertensive patients, which is beneficial to improve vascular health, improve cardiopulmonary function, and better control blood pressure.

3. Lose weight

When walking, we can exercise many muscles such as triceps femoris, quadriceps femoris, hips, buttocks, waist and abdomen, which can burn calories and burn fat.

4. Bones

In addition to dietary factors, long-term lack of exercise may also lead to calcium deficiency, which in turn can lead to osteoporosis. Walking helps to increase the rate of calcium deposition in bones, relieve bone and joint pain and increase body flexibility.

In addition to the above points, walking exercise can also help promote sleep, improve mood, promote bowel movements and other benefits.

Finally, Xiaojiu summed up some precautions for walking and exercise, everyone can learn it!

·Morning and noon are the peak hours of blood pressure, and the light is too dark at night, so the best time to walk and exercise is from the afternoon to the evening;

Try to choose sports shoes with a wider head, the soles should be non-slip, the cushioning capacity should be better, and the clothes should be breathable and loose;

·It is best to choose plastic pavement, which can alleviate the impact force, and do not walk on gravel roads or wooden plank roads to avoid falling;

The speed should be 90~120 steps/minute, the body is slightly sweaty and the heart rate is increased as the ideal state;

The number of walking steps is not as much as possible. It is recommended that middle-aged and elderly people walk 6,000 to 10,000 times a day.

Walking is the easiest and most convenient way to exercise. It is suitable for men, women and children. Let's walk and exercise together from today!

References:

[1]Dempsey P， Musicha C， Rowlands A， Davies M， Khunti K， Razieh C et al. Investigation of a UK biobank cohort reveals causal associations of self-reported walking pace with telomere length. Communications Biology. 2022;5(1).

[2] Academician Zhang Boli has a habit that he has persisted for 20 years: walking 7000 steps a day is the best! .Health Times, 2022-01-08

[3] The easiest, most effective and most scientific, 5 points of ace sports walking! .Human Health, 2019-08-07

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