You want to see the proof, you say, before you do anything hasty like get out of your chair. Fair enough. Consider just some of the accumulated research that demonstrates the healthy benefits of walking. The findings presented below are condensed and simplified for the sake of brevity.
Heart attack and stroke Last month, 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. The federally funded study involving 74,000 women age 50 to 79 found that brisk walking for 2 1/2 hours per week cut the risk of heart attack and stroke by about one-third. Results apply to men, too, said the researchers. A separate study last spring found that 12 weeks of moderate-paced walking for 40 minutes a day five days per week restored elasticity in the carotid arteries of sedentary post-menopausal women to pre-menopausal levels. An earlier study by the same research team found similar benefits in middle-aged and older men.
_____The Walking Issue_____
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Take a Walk (The Washington Post, Oct 1, 2002)
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Poler Expeditions (The Washington Post, Oct 1, 2002)
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Three for The Road (The Washington Post, Oct 1, 2002)
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No Excuses for You (The Washington Post, Oct 1, 2002)
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How Much of This Stuff Do You Really Need? (The Washington Post, Oct 1, 2002)
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Talking The Walk (The Washington Post, Oct 1, 2002)
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Talk to a Professional Walker (The Washington Post, Oct 1, 2002)
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Walking Resources (The Washington Post, Oct 1, 2002)
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Walk the Walk: Share Your Walking Tips, Tricks, Successes, Stories (The Washington Post, Oct 1, 2002)
_____Live Online_____
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Benefits of Walking: Mark Fenton, former editor-at-large of Walking Magazine, discussed the benefits of walking.
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Diabetes In March, the National Institutes of Health's seven-year Diabetes Prevention Program showed that walking -- in combination with a healthier diet -- did more to ward off diabetes than did the popular diabetes prevention drug Metformin. Participants in the study who added 150 or more minutes of activity (mostly walking) per week dropped 7 percent of their body weight in one year.
Breast cancer A report from the Nurses' Health Study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 1999 found 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 one hour or less. Women age 30 to 55 were observed over a 16-year period. A similar study, published a year earlier in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, saw similar reductions in risk among women 25 to 42.
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| | | "Walking is the very best exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far."
Thomas Jefferson
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Cognitive decline A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine last year 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. Another 2001 study, this one in the journal Neurology, showed that engaging in activities such as walking may stave off Alzheimer's disease for those over 65.
Depression In a 1999 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers at Duke University Medical Center found that a brisk 30-minute walk or jog around a track three times a week was just as effective as antidepressant medication in relieving the symptoms of major depression in middle-aged and elderly people.
Erectile dysfunction A study of 1,700 men aged 40 to 70 completed at the New England Research Institutes in 2000 suggested that regular physical activity, even if initiated in midlife, reduces the risk of erectile dysfunction.
Colorectal 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 studies have shown that regular aerobic activity increases bowel-transit time, reducing constipation.
Osteoporosis A 1995 study of 1,000 women and 700 men published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that walking protects the bone density of the hips. Like many other studies on the subject, it also concluded that lifelong exercise, including walking, has a protective effect on the bone mass density of the spine.
Mental acuity 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 improvement at doing a repetitive task. Benefits were seen regardless of whether the participants had been physically active earlier in their lives.
Cholesterol A study published in February in the Journals 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 (considered "good" cholesterol) and decreased triglyceride levels. Other studies have shown that moderate exercise decreases low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL, or "bad" cholesterol).
-- Suz Redfearn
