Simply walking slightly faster is enough to ‘boost your health – slashing risk of serious health issues'
STEP UP Simply walking slightly faster is enough to 'boost your health – slashing risk of serious health issues'
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window)
Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
SIMPLY walking faster could be enough exercise to boost your health in old age.
A trial on over-60s suggests exactly how much to increase your stride to improve strength and fitness.
Sign up for Scottish Sun
newsletter
Sign up
1
Walking is a good form of exercise for older people (stock image)
Credit: Alamy
It suggests small speed boost could help to prevent frailty, reducing the risk of falls and injuries, and allowing more independent living.
Experts at the University of Chicago said picking up the pace could be an easy lifestyle tweak for people who find it hard to exercise.
Study author Dr Daniel Rubin said: 'Even casual walking had positive effects on our study participants.
'People who haven't experienced frailty can't imagine how big a difference it makes to be able to not get tired going to the grocery store, or not need to sit down while they're out.
Read more on exercise
SNOOZE BETTER Can't sleep? 4 exercises proven to beat insomnia and improve sleep quality
'Our results demonstrate that increased walking cadence was associated with an increase in functional capacity improvement.'
The study recruited 102 people from retirement communities in the USA and compared their walking speed to their fitness.
14 extra steps per minute to boost health
Some continued walking at a casual pace – about 80 steps per minute – while others walked as fast as they safely could, about 100 steps per minute.
After four months, people in the fast walking group showed a more significant improvement in fitness tests than the casual walkers.
The researchers said an average increase of 14 steps per minute should help to improve someone's health.
A report by Sport England this year showed that physical activity among retirees is increasing but at least a third of over-55s do not hit NHS targets.
Get fit at 50: Workouts for beginners and those short on time
The health service recommends adults get at least 2.5 hours of moderate exercise per week.
Writing in the journal Plos One, Dr Rubin added: 'Walking is an important exercise to reduce frailty in older adults.
'It directly benefits the circulatory, cardiopulmonary and immune systems while reducing the risk and severity of various health conditions.
'Walking interventions are advantageous as they are easily scalable, low cost, and can be performed with no additional equipment.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
26 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Walking just 14 more steps per minute could protect against rising chronic conditions
Walking just 14 more steps a minute could boost your health and protect against deadly diseases, a study suggests. Researchers at the University of Chicago tracked 102 frail adults — weaker individuals who are exhausted by little exercise — in their late 70s who were asked to do a 45-minute walking session three times a week. Over the four-month study, half were asked to continue walking at a 'relaxed and comfortable pace' during the exercise sessions. But the rest were told to walk 'as fast as they safely could'. Participants in the 'fast-walking' group walked 14 more steps every minute on average by the study end, and about 100 steps per minute — equivalent to the average among adults. The fast-walking group achieved a ten percent improvement in their six-minute walking distance, indicating enhanced endurance and cardiovascular health. This improvement also suggested increased muscle mass and a lower risk of falls, the leading cause of injury-related death in adults over 65, as well as improved aerobic fitness, a key predictor for longevity and sustained independence in older age. For comparison, those who walked at a relaxed pace saw no improvement in either measure during the study. Dr Daniel Rubin, an anesthesiologist who led the study, and others wrote: 'We demonstrated that an increase of 14 steps per minute during the intervention sessions increased the odds of an improvement in [endurance]. 'Older adults can increase their [steps per minute] and [steps per minute] can serve as a surrogate measure of activity intensity during walking interventions.' Average adults walk about 100 to 130 steps per minute, according to estimates, while older and frail individuals walk about 82 steps per minute on average. The average American also walks about 5,100 steps per day, well below the recommendation of 10,000 every 24 hours. In the paper, published in PLOS One, researchers recruited adults from 14 retirement homes near the university. The study defined a frail adult as an individual with weight loss, slowness, weakness, exhaustion and someone who undertook little physical activity. Of the participants, only 35 percent were able to walk unaided with the remainder requiring a cane, walker, scooter or wheelchair at times. They were divided into two equal groups for walking sessions, the fast group or the relaxed group, with each led by a trained research assistant. Over the first three sessions, adults were asked to walk 45 minutes at a comfortable pace. In the next eight sessions, participants were asked to walk 40 minutes, and start and end each session with five minutes of stair tapping — stepping and quickly tapping the toes of each foot on the edge of a step. During the walking, those in the fast-walking group were also asked to increase their intensity until they reached 70 percent of their heart rate maximum. The heart rate maximum is the highest number of times the heart can beat in one minute during strenuous physical activity. It is calculated using the formula of 220 minus someone's age. For those in the study, their maximum heart rate would be around 147 beats per minute and 70 percent of this would be 103 beats per minute. Over the remaining sessions, participants were asked to walk for 35 minutes but begin each session with a 10-minute warm up. But those in the exercise group were asked to incrementally increase their speed during the walking sessions to 'as fast as they safely could.' Participants' walking was tracked using an activPAL tracker that was strapped onto their thigh, which measured steps and speed. They were able to stop to rest during the exercises, but this stopped the timer, which would not restart until they began to walk again. Researchers found that among those in the relaxed group, their steps decreased during the study from 82 to 77 steps per minute. For comparison, those in the exercise group saw this rise from 86 to 100 steps per minute on average. Participants were asked to complete the six-minute walk test at the start and end of the study to measure their endurance. In the relaxed group, participants saw a slight improvement, with the distance they walked increasing from 836 to 869 feet. For comparison, however, those in the exercise group saw the distance they walked increase from 843 to 1,033 feet per session - a 10 percent rise. For comparison, the average American adult can walk around 2,100 feet in six minutes. The team concluded: 'The overall exercise dose (frequency, duration, and intensity) between the two groups only differed with respect to the intensity component as frequency and duration were kept constant between the two groups. 'Thus, prefrail and frail older adults engaged in walking interventions can derive further improvement in their functional outcomes by increasing [steps per minute] during a fixed volume of walking exercise.' The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Aging.
Telegraph
26 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Why England can learn from Scotland after first measles death in a decade
The NHS in England could learn important lessons from Scotland after a measles death in Liverpool last week, experts say. Comparative data shows that vaccine uptake in Scotland is considerably higher than in England, with nearly 90 per cent of children fully protected against measles by age five. The difference, say experts, is most likely to be explained by the fact that access to GPs and other primary health care facilities is much better north of the border 'Everybody talks about [vaccine] hesitancy, but the main thing that's stopping uptake is access,' Dr Helen Bradford, Professor of Children's Health at University College London, told The Telegraph. 'That includes knowing what vaccine is due and when, being able to make an appointment, and actually getting to that appointment – all of which can be really difficult for some families.' News of the death of a child in Liverpool of measles comes as Britain's vaccination rates have fallen to the lowest of any G7 country, including the US. The problem appears to be being driven by the performance of the NHS in England. At least 89.2 per cent of Scottish children are fully vaccinated with the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine by age five, compared to just 83.9 per cent in England. At the same time, Scotland has much better access to primary care – with 76 GP's per 100,000 people, compared to just 58 per 100,000 in England. 'General practice [in England] has continually had resources withdrawn, but at the same time delivers most of the childhood vaccinations,' said Dr David Elliman, an honorary senior associate professor and medical doctor at UCL. Access, he added, was the most important issue. 'In a GP practice, most parents are happy to have their children immunised. Some may have questions, but as long as they receive clear and satisfactory answers, they're usually comfortable proceeding,' he added. During the pandemic – a time where nearly all health systems saw a noticeable decrease in routine vaccinations – Scotland's coverage of routine childhood jabs actually increased. Researchers at the University of Edinburgh found a 14.3 per cent increase in children receiving the second dose of the MMR vaccine on time during the first lockdown in Scotland compared with vaccination levels in 2019. England saw a net fall in the same period of 1.93 per cent. The researchers linked the boost to flexible working for parents – which meant they could attend vaccination appointments – and better access to mobile vaccination centres. In 2018, the Scottish Government took the decision to transfer the responsibility for delivering vaccinations from GP practices to regional health boards as part of a plan to boost uptake. While most vaccines are still administered by GPs, the shift gave health boards the flexibility to tailor services for harder-to-reach communities. Unlike in England – where families often struggle with rigid booking systems, the so-called '8am scramble' for same day appointments, and limited availability – Scotland offers vaccinations in several different settings like schools, A&E departments, and at home visits. 'We need to get away from being too rigid in what sort of settings we give the vaccine in. Traditionally it's either been a community clinic or general practice but we ought to be doing it more in the places that parents go to, and particularly children who are at high risk,' said Dr Elliman. 'That means more immunisations in hospital settings and in neighbourhoods,' he added. Scotland's better vaccination rates appear to be positively influencing outcomes. So far this year, England has recorded 529 measles cases, while Scotland has had just 27. In 2024, those numbers were even more dramatic: 2,911 cases were recorded in England, compared to just 24 in Scotland. While population size partly explains the disparity – England's population is more than eleven times larger than Scotland's – it doesn't account for an almost 120-fold difference in infection rates, say experts. Only last week, the health secretary Wes Streeting acknowledged the need for better access to primary health care in England. Under the government's new NHS 10-year plan, he committed to rolling out 'neighbourhood health services' to try and 'end the 8am scramble and make it easier to see your GP,' referencing the country's maddening and archaic GP booking system. The document also includes a plan to boost vaccine uptake by allowing nurses and midwives that carry out home visits to administer vaccines in England. Yet it is unclear when the new measures will come into force: England currently faces a 5,000 shortfall in the number of health visitors needed to provide the mandated four at-home visits required for every child in the country under school age. Scotland outcompetes England in this area, too. About 90 per cent of Scottish children receive at least their first four scheduled reviews, compared to just short of 65 per cent in parts of England, including London. 'These are the public health nurses that have contact with all young families with young children, often the first port of call, the first place that parents will ask questions about immunisation. The numbers [in England] have gone down dramatically, which for those people who have got questions means there isn't always somebody obvious to ask,' said Dr Bradford.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
NHS must adapt to work better in heatwaves
Higher temperatures are becoming more frequent with climate change, and our patients are paying the price ('Profound concern' as scientists say extreme heat 'now the norm' in UK, 14 July). Increasingly, physicians are seeing more patients whose health is affected by extreme heat. During heat periods in the summer of 2022, there were 3,271 excess deaths in England and Wales, and last month's heatwave alone will cost hundreds of lives. Demand for healthcare will rise as a result of extreme temperatures. It is not only people's health at risk, but our ability to care for patients too. About 90% of hospitals in England alone are at risk of overheating, making it harder to keep services running safely. We need to get serious about adapting the NHS to cope with changing conditions. The climate crisis is a health crisis. Preventing disruption in the NHS, by investing in building upgrades, workforce preparedness and adequate resilience planning, is no longer optional – it is essential, so the NHS can continue to provide healthcare when Mark HarberSpecial adviser on healthcare sustainability and climate change, Royal College of Physicians Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
