Consider just some of the accumulated research that demonstrates absolutely, the health benefits of walking. The research findings I’ve presented below from the USA are condensed and ‘de-teched’ for the sake of flowing readability, but are a very strong ‘wake up’ call for overweight couch potatoes everywhere, to get out there for some walking, especially now that Summer is with us!
A study published in the ‘New England Journal of Medicine’ showed that an energetic walk was as effective as running in cutting the risk of heart attack and stroke. This federally funded study in the USA involved 74,000 women age 50 to 79 and found that brisk walking for 2 1/2 hours per week cut the risk of heart attack and stroke by a minimum of one-third.
Results also apply to men and a separate study in May 2007 found that 12 weeks of moderate-paced walking for 40 minutes a day, five days per week significantly restored elasticity in the carotid arteries of sedentary post-menopausal women to pre-menopausal levels. An earlier study by the same research team also found very similar benefits in middle-aged and older men.
The ‘American National Institutes of Health's’ seven-year Diabetes Prevention Program showed that walking -- in combination with a healthier diet -- did considerably more to ward off diabetes than the popular diabetes prevention drug Metformin. Participants in the study who added 150 or more minutes of activity (mostly walking) per week also lost 7 percent of unwanted body fat.
As far back as 1999, a report from the Nurses' Health Study published in the ‘Archives of Internal Medicine, ‘revealed significant reductions in breast cancer risk among 122,000 participants who walked or did more vigorous forms of exercise for seven or more hours per week, compared with those who exercised for one hour or less. These women who were aged between 30 to 55 were observed over a 16-year period. Again, going back quite some time, a similar study, published 1998 in the journal of the ‘National Cancer Institute’, saw similarly significant reductions in risk amongst women 25 to 42.
In matters of cognitive/mental decline, a study published in the ‘Archives of Internal Medicine’ in 2008, showed that older women who walked regularly were less likely to develop memory loss and other declines in mental function than women who were less active. Those who walked 18 miles or more per week fared best of all. Another 2001 study, this one in the journal ‘Neurology’, showed that engaging in activities such as walking, is of significant assistance in attempts to stave off Alzheimer's disease for those over 65.
In matters of depressive disorders, a 1999 study published in the ‘Archives of Internal Medicine’ by researchers from Duke University Medical Centre found that a brisk 30-minute walk or jog around a track three times a week was every bit as effective as antidepressant medication, in relieving the symptoms of major depression in middle-aged and elderly people.
With male erectile dysfunction, a study of 1,700 men aged 40 to 70 completed at the ‘New England Research Institute’ in 2002, revealed that regular physical activity, even if initiated in late midlife, significantly reduces the risk of erectile dysfunction.
Concerning the condition, colo-rectal cancer, ‘The Physicians Health’ study, involving 22,000 men aged 40 to 84, found that participants cut their risk for colon cancer and polyps in half by engaging in moderate daily exercise. Other similar studies have shown that regular aerobic activity also increases bowel-transit time, thereby reducing constipation and ‘auto-intoxication’ (re-absorption of toxins from faecal stools held too long in the transverse colon)
A 1995 study of 1,000 women and 700 men published in the ‘American Journal of Epidemiology’ found that walking significantly stregthens the bone density of the hips. Like many other studies on the subject, it also concluded that lifelong exercise, including walking, has a soundly protective effect on the bone mass and density of the spinal column.
A 1999 study published in the journal ‘Nature’ found that walking delivered a beneficial added dose of oxygen to the frontal regions of the brain in people over 60, triggering faster reaction times and improvements when performing repetitive tasks. These benefits were seen totally regardless as to whether the participants had been physically active earlier in their lives.
A study published in February 2008 in the ‘Journal of Gerontology’ showed that women aged 70 to 87 who walked three days a week for 10 weeks significantly increased high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the "good" cholesterol) and decreased their undesirable triglyceride levels. Other studies have shown that even very moderate exercise decreases low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL or "bad" cholesterol).
All this benefit just from regular walking! Seems like exercise is pretty much now proven to be seriously beneficial but like spinach, many know it’s good for them but still avoid it! So it’s time to swallow your activity ‘greens’ to be less stressed and enjoying a better quality of life that as a result will probably be longer!
Remember…Exercise adds years to your life and life to your years!
