Latest news with #AmericanJournalofPreventiveMedicine
India Today
2 days ago
- Health
- India Today
It's not how long you walk, but how fast that matters
It's not how long you walk, but how fast that matters A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, led by Dr. Wei Zheng from Vanderbilt University, analyzed data from 86,000 people over 17 years. Walking pace and health People who walked briskly for at least 15 minutes a day had a significantly lower risk of death than those who walked slowly. Brisk walking reduces death risk Both slow and fast walkers saw health gains—but the benefits were greater for those who walked at a faster pace. Fast pace adds more benefits This method—also known as Japanese walking—involves switching between slow and fast walking, and is showing promising results. Interval walking is gaining popularity Half the participants earned less than $15,000 a year, and two-thirds were Black—groups often underrepresented in health studies. Study focused on underserved groups Dr. Zheng highlights that brisk walking offers a simple, affordable way to improve health in at-risk communities. Low-cost health boost Certain guidelines recommend 30 minutes of moderate activity, but this study shows even 15 minutes daily makes a difference. Even 15 minutes can help For people who are sedentary, starting with short brisk walks can still lower their health risks. Good news for beginners Even slow walkers gained health benefits, and adding a few minutes of brisk walking could enhance those effects. Credit: Credit Name Add pace gradually Treat walking like exercise—by adding intervals and pace changes—to boost heart health and overall fitness. Walking like a workout
The Independent
2 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
Walking fast for 15 minutes a day slashes risk of early death by 20%, study says
Picking up the pace of your walk for as little as 15 minutes per day could help cut your risk of an early death by 20 per cent, according to a new study. The long-term benefits of walking around 10,000 steps a day are widely acknowledged by doctors and health professionals, but the new research from a team at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee suggests an increase in walking speed could be a huge boost for health. A smaller boost to longevity was also found in connection with more than three hours of daily slow walking. Researchers said their findings showed people should 'strive to incorporate more intense physical activity into their routines,' adding it was a 'highly accessible' way to help boost heart efficiency and control factors linked to cardiovascular disease such as obesity. 'Our research has shown that fast walking as little as 15 minutes a day was associated with a nearly 20 per cent reduction in total mortality, while a smaller reduction in mortality was found in association with more than three hours of daily slow walking,' they wrote. 'This benefit remained strong even after accounting for other lifestyle factors and was consistent across various sensitivity analyses.' The study, which was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, analysed data from nearly 80,000 predominantly low-income and Black individuals across 12 US states. It found fast walking could help reduce the risk of early death across all causes, but it was most effective in preventing cardiovascular disease. Lead author of the article Lili Liu called on public health campaigns and community programmes to 'emphasise the importance and availability of fast walking to improve health outcomes'. He said: 'Public health campaigns and community-based programs can emphasise the importance and availability of fast walking to improve health outcomes, providing resources and support to facilitate increased fast walking within all communities. 'Furthermore, the findings of the reduced mortality associated with fast walking pace were supported by previous studies conducted in middle- and upper-middle-income populations. Individuals should strive to incorporate more intense physical activity into their routines, such as brisk walking or other forms of aerobic exercise.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
How to Maximize the Health Benefits of Walking
Credit - Ruslan Dashinsky—Getty Images Walking has many demonstrated health benefits: improving heart health, lowering blood sugar, burning calories for weight loss, and improving muscle tone. But most of the research on walking has focused on how long people walk, not how quickly. Recent studies have hinted that altering your walking pace—which has become popular as Japanese walking (also known as interval walking)—might have additional benefits. In a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers led by Dr. Wei Zheng, professor and director of the Vanderbilt University Epidemiology Center, studied whether walking pace made a difference in people's health. They studied 86,000 people who reported how much they walked each day, as well as other health-related activities such as their diet and whether they smoked or drank alcohol. Over 17 years, the researchers tracked their death rates and correlated mortality to their walking pattern. They found that people who walked at a faster pace for at least 15 minutes a day had a lower risk of dying during the study period than those who walked more slowly. Both groups lowered their risk of death during that time, but the reduction was more impressive among those who regularly walked at a brisker pace. Read More: Why Walking Isn't Enough When It Comes to Exercise While those findings may not be entirely surprising, Zheng says the trial focused on a group of people who aren't typically part of exercise studies. About half of the people in the trial made less than $15,000 a year, and two-thirds of the participants were Black. Studies have documented that these groups 'are at high risk of many diseases including diabetes and hypertension,' says Zheng—so the lower mortality rate is especially reassuring, since it represents a relatively low impact and low cost way to improve health. Current government health recommendations advise moderate exercise for at least 30 minutes most days of the week, and Zheng says that his study shows that even 15 minutes a day can provide benefits. That's good news for people who may currently be sedentary and for whom starting an exercise program can be challenging. 'If you walk just 15 minutes a day, which is below the recommended level [of exercise], you still benefit,' he says. And while the results showed that people who walked the fastest had the greatest reduction in mortality, Zheng says it's important to remember that even people walking at a slower pace showed some benefit. That suggests that if people continue walking, even at a slower pace, and add a few minutes of faster paced walking into their regimen, they could increase their health benefits. Such interval training has long been popular in exercise regimens, but the latest data suggest it applies to walking as well. Contact us at letters@ Solve the daily Crossword
Medical News Today
3 days ago
- Health
- Medical News Today
Pick up the pace to live longer, new study suggests
Physical activity like walking is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Research is ongoing regarding the benefits of physical activity in various populations. One study focusing on low-income and Black participants found that fast walking may decrease mortality risk by almost 20%.Physical activity is one thing that helps people stay healthy and reduce the risk of health problems as they grow guidelines from the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion say that adults should get '150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity' each week, and this can include activities like brisk walking. A new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine has explored the relationship between daily walking and mortality, primarily focusing on low-income and Black results of the study suggest that regular walking may help lower mortality risk. The most pronounced mortality reduction was related to fast walking. Even slow walking can bring heart benefitsThe researchers who conducted this study note that there is somewhat limited data focusing on low-income and low-income Black individuals when it comes to 'walking and other leisure-time physical activity.'For the study, they used data from the Southern Community Cohort Study, which includes participants from twelve southeastern states. About two-thirds of this cohort is Black, and over half of the cohort's participants made less than $15,000 a year when they enrolled in the study. For the current research, the main sample included 79,856 participants, who provided information on their daily walking habits, including speed and speed fell into two broad categories. Slow walking included things like walking at work and light exercise. Fast walking included things like brisk walking or climbing the time, participants were divided into categories based on ranges of walking time. Researchers also had data on things like smoking, alcohol intake, and leisure-time physical activity. Based on leisure-time physical activity, researchers divided participants into the three categories of 'inactive, fairly active, and active.'Researchers were able to consider the overall healthiness of participants' lifestyles, and they had data on death and major causes of death. The average follow-up time with participants was just under 17 years, and throughout this time, about 27,000 deaths occurred. The greatest number of deaths, around 13,500, were from cardiovascular disease. About 48% of participants did not report fast walking, and about one-third walked slowly for more than 3 hours each day. For participants in this slow-walking category, there was 4% decreased mortality risk, but this was not statistically researchers did find that slow walking for over an hour each day could lower mortality related to all cardiovascular diseases, though the strongest association was with a lower risk of death from ischemic heart disease. Boosting walking pace just a little may prolong longevityFast walking appeared to offer the most benefit, with almost a 20% decrease in mortality associated with 15 minutes of fast walking daily. After adjusting for lifestyle factors, the association between mortality and slow and fast walking became less. However, the association for fast walking was still highly significant. Sensitivity analyses revealed that fast walking appeared to most reduce risk for death from cardiovascular disease, particularly cardiovascular disease death caused by heart main finding of stratified analyses was that the association between fast walking and lower mortality appeared to be stronger for participants who did not smoke and those with higher income. They note that they did not observe significant variations for body mass index, comorbidities, or participants who engaged in slow walking, doing more fast walking helped to further decrease mortality risk. Finally, researchers found that the association between fast walking and lower mortality was not dependent upon participants' leisure-time physical activity. For participants doing any leisure-time activity, longer amounts of fast walking led to more benefits. Does brisk walking pace boost health or is it dictated by fitness?This research primarily focused on low-income and Black individuals, so more research can confirm similar findings in other groups, and the results may not be generalizable to other some data, like information on daily walking and lifestyle, came from participant reporting, and some of this data might not be acknowledge that some participants' walking reports could have included 'other types of physical activity' like climbing stairs, so misclassification is possible. Since they only looked at physical activity at baseline, they were not able to assess changes that could have happened in physical activity and how this could have affected outcomes. Researchers acknowledge risk for residual confounding and reverse causation. They suggest that future research can also see how factors like psychosocial stressors and material well-being play into fast walking and mortality risk. Finally, sensitivity analyses included participants who had missing data on walking and participants 'who died within the first 2 years.' The timing of death could introduce possible bias. Cardiologist Patrick Kee, MD, PhD, Vital Heart & Vein in Houston, who was not involved in the study, noted the following cautions when it comes to this research speaking to Medical News Today:'The ability to walk briskly may primarily serve as a proxy for overall physical fitness and the absence of severe comorbidities rather than an independent driver of improved outcomes. Individuals with obesity, frailty, advanced heart failure, chronic lung disease, a history of stroke with hemiplegia, or significant musculoskeletal issues may be underrepresented, and the self-reported nature of walking data further constrains the validity of the conclusions. Notably, the study does not establish causation nor does it validate brisk walking as an effective intervention to reduce cardiovascular mortality.''Brisk walking may primarily function as a marker of physical fitness and functional capacity rather than an independent health intervention,' Kee added.'There is a dose effect to walking'Overall, this study emphasizes the benefits of regular fast walking, which can help with informing recommendations. Kanwar Kelley, MD, JD, a triple board-certified in Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery (ENT), Obesity Medicine, and Lifestyle Medicine, and cofounder and CEO of Side Health in Orinda, CA, who was similarly not involved in the study, noted the following regarding the clinical implications to MNT: 'By recognizing that there is a dose effect to walking, recommendations can be better tailored to get the most effect from the intervention. Recognizing that there may be a difference between slow-walking and fast-walking, especially in specific populations, can have a similar effect to personalized medicine by recommending physical activities that may offer the most benefit to a particular patient.''While evidence suggests that walking in general can improve outcomes, the evidence in this paper can refine that recommendation and be more effective at setting goals. While not every individual can immediately engage in fast walking, using evidence such as that provided in this paper gives medical practitioners and physicians more leverage to help patients achieve a specific goal,' said David Cutler, MD, board-certified family medicine physician at Providence Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, also not involved in the research, told us that, 'the fact that this population is at the greatest risk of premature death due to their low socioeconomic and minority status offers great hope for improving health outcomes in these populations.''Traditional cardiovascular risk factors such as controlling blood pressure, lowering cholesterol, managing diabetes, and stopping smoking need to be supplemented with the evidence-based science that strenuous exercise like 15 minutes of fast walking daily can reduce your chance of dying prematurely,' Cutler advised.
Time Magazine
3 days ago
- Health
- Time Magazine
How to Maximize the Health Benefits of Walking
Walking has many demonstrated health benefits: improving heart health, lowering blood sugar, burning calories for weight loss, and improving muscle tone. But most of the research on walking has focused on how long people walk, not how quickly. Recent studies have hinted that altering your walking pace—which has become popular as Japanese walking (also known as interval walking)—might have additional benefits. In a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers led by Dr. Wei Zheng, professor and director of the Vanderbilt University Epidemiology Center, studied whether walking pace made a difference in people's health. They studied 86,000 people who reported how much they walked each day, as well as other health-related activities such as their diet and whether they smoked or drank alcohol. Over 17 years, the researchers tracked their death rates and correlated mortality to their walking pattern. They found that people who walked at a faster pace for at least 15 minutes a day had a lower risk of dying during the study period than those who walked more slowly. Both groups lowered their risk of death during that time, but the reduction was more impressive among those who regularly walked at a brisker pace. Read More: Why Walking Isn't Enough When It Comes to Exercise While those findings may not be entirely surprising, Zheng says the trial focused on a group of people who aren't typically part of exercise studies. About half of the people in the trial made less than $15,000 a year, and two-thirds of the participants were Black. Studies have documented that these groups 'are at high risk of many diseases including diabetes and hypertension,' says Zheng—so the lower mortality rate is especially reassuring, since it represents a relatively low impact and low cost way to improve health. Current government health recommendations advise moderate exercise for at least 30 minutes most days of the week, and Zheng says that his study shows that even 15 minutes a day can provide benefits. That's good news for people who may currently be sedentary and for whom starting an exercise program can be challenging. 'If you walk just 15 minutes a day, which is below the recommended level [of exercise], you still benefit,' he says. And while the results showed that people who walked the fastest had the greatest reduction in mortality, Zheng says it's important to remember that even people walking at a slower pace showed some benefit. That suggests that if people continue walking, even at a slower pace, and add a few minutes of faster paced walking into their regimen, they could increase their health benefits. Such interval training has long been popular in exercise regimens, but the latest data suggest it applies to walking as well.
