As anyone who makes a habit of regularly walking knows, it makes you feel good. Swinging your arms and stepping briskly on a nature path, sandy beach, or treadmill makes you feel energized and works the body. What’s more, recent medical research gives you lots of reasons to step out. From staving off stroke to keeping your GI tract in working order, here’s the latest on why a regular brisk walk should be part of your day.
1. Live longer
The faster you walk, the longer you likely will live. That’s the conclusion of a report revealing a strong correlation between walking pace and expected survival rates for people older than 65. The average gait speed of the 34,485 participants from nine studies included in the analysis was three feet per second, but University of Pittsburgh researchers found the faster participants lived longer.
"Walking requires energy, movement control, and support, and places demands on multiple organ systems, including the heart, lungs, circulatory, nervous, and musculoskeletal systems," the researchers recently wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association. "Slowing gait may reflect both damaged systems and a high energy cost of walking."
2. Fight dementia
Walk six miles a day and prevent brain shrinkage and dementia. A study of nearly 300 people in Pittsburgh who kept track of how much they walked each week showed that those who walked at least six miles had less age-related brain shrinkage than people who walked less.
Researchers reporting last fall in the journal Neurology said more studies need to be done on the effects of exercise on dementia, but because there are no effective treatments for Alzheimer's disease, walking may be one thing people can do now that may help in the future.
3. Battle breast cancer
Women who regularly take brisk walks have a lower breast cancer risk after menopause, a recent study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine suggests. Researchers reviewed data collected from nearly 100,000 postmenopausal women and found that those who walked briskly for at least an hour a day (or an equal amount of activity) were 15 percent less likely to get breast cancer than women who walked less than one hour per week. And those who got little exercise but increased their activity level after menopause were 10 percent less likely to develop the disease than those who remained sedentary.
Physical activity "is one of the few breast cancer risk factors that women can do something about," study author Dr. A. Heather Eliassen told Reuters Health. "And it's never too late."
4. Soothe your tummy
Move regularly and calm an irritated bowel. In a study of 102 adults with irritable bowel syndrome, 43 percent of those who got 20 to 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise — like brisk walking or biking — three to five days a week showed significant improvement in their symptoms of cramps, diarrhea, bloating, and constipation. Only a quarter of the participants who maintained their regular lifestyle reported improvements.
Researchers, whose work recently appeared in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, noted previous studies have shown that exercise can relieve gas and constipation by getting the digestive system moving.
5. Slash your stroke risk
Reduce your stroke risk — one step at a time. A study of 39,000 healthy women 45 and older found that those who walked two or more hours a week had a lower risk of stroke than those who walked less than two hours a week. The most active women were 17 percent less likely to have a stroke, compared with the least active. And those who walked more than two hours per week were 30 percent less apt to suffer a stroke than those who didn’t walk at all.
"More active people generally demonstrate a 25 to 30 percent lower risk of stroke," Jacob Sattelmair, the study's lead researcher from the Harvard School of Public Health, told Reuters Health.
6. Protect your prostate
Even moderate exercise — like walking — may lower your risk for prostate cancer. In a study published in 2009 in the Journal of Urology, researchers from Duke University Medical Center found that among 190 men who underwent prostate cancer biopsies, those who regularly exercised were less likely to be diagnosed with the disease than sedentary men. Moderate exercisers—those who exercised the equivalent of three or more hours a week—were two-thirds less likely to have prostate cancer compared with those who were inactive.
Exercise decreases the amount of testosterone and other hormones that help prostate tumors grow, and bolsters the immune system, researchers noted, which may help explain the findings.
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