▎ WuXi AppTec content team editor
You go slowly, wait for me, why go so fast?
People who walk slowly age faster
For this question, people who walk fast are likely to answer: I have long legs and walk fast! I'm in a hurry, I have to hurry up!
Now, there is a new answer to this question: walk faster, get older, be healthier!
Image credit: 123RF
Hypertensive patients who walk slowly are more likely to be hospitalized
In people's impressions, walking slowly and faltering is one of the signs of the elderly, and the speed of walking reflects the decline of their physical function. In fact, in the decades before we reach old age, walking speed may also have hidden health information.
A study of 904 middle-aged New Zealanders found that people who walked slower than those who walked faster aged their bodily functions prematurely.
The study participants were born between April 1972 and March 1973. From the age of 3, the researchers collected information on various physical indicators of their body every two years, including intelligence, language, motor skills, weight, blood sugar, blood pressure, blood lipids, respiratory system and other physical function and physiological health indicators.
Most recently, when they were 45 years old, the researchers additionally tested and assessed walking speed, brain imaging, cognitive function, and facial aging.
The results of the analysis found:
People who walk slowly have worse lung, teeth, and immune systems, weak grip, poor balance, and poor hand-eye coordination;
The brain is "older", the brain is smaller in size and surface area, and the thickness of the cerebral cortex is thinner, and cognitive ability declines faster.
In addition, people who walk slowly are also "facially older", that is, older.
People who walk slowly are at higher risk of dying from heart disease
Walking speed is also associated with heart disease and death.
A survey of more than 420,000 people in the United Kingdom found that middle-aged people who walked slowly not only had a higher risk of heart disease than those who walked faster, but also had a nearly 1-fold increased risk of death from heart disease. The results were the same even after considering exercise habits, diet, and whether to smoke or drink alcohol.
People who walk slowly tend to have lower levels of physical health, which indicates that they are malnourished or have more muscle tissue loss.
In addition, people who walked slowly also had lower activity levels, which partly explained their high risk of death from heart disease.
People who walk faster tend to have stronger heart function, more powerful beats, smooth blood circulation, and heart disease will be reduced.
The slowing down of walking is a signal of premature aging given by the body and should be paid attention to.
For people with high blood pressure, the speed of walking will also affect the number of hospitalizations and days due to illness.
A study of 1,078 patients with hypertension showed that patients who walked faster had a lower risk of hospitalization and a shorter length of stay than those who walked slower.
Based on how fast the subjects walked, the researchers divided them into 3 groups, slow (2.6km/h), medium (3.9km/h), and fast (5.1km/h), and recorded the number of hospitalizations and length of hospital stay over 3 years.
During this period, 51 percent of slow-speed subjects, 44 percent of medium-speed subjects, and 31 percent of fast-paced subjects were hospitalized at least once; the average length of stay for each group of patients was 23, 14, and 9 days, respectively.
The analysis found that fast walkers were 37% less likely to be hospitalized within three years compared to slow walkers; for every 1km/hour increase in walking speed, they were 19% less likely to be hospitalized over a 3-year period.
All in all, when the body is healthy and the various systems are very cooperative and coordinated, the walking speed will increase.
In addition, although walking fast is beneficial to physical health, when improving the speed of walking, it should first be within the range of the body's tolerance, gradually accelerating, not blindly pursuing speed, and ignoring the body's own ability to bear, causing harm to the body.