New study on benefits of walking

The next time you have a check-up, don't be surprised if your doctor hands you a prescription to walk. Yes, this simple activity that you've been doing since you were about a year old is now being touted as "the closest thing we have to a wonder drug," in the words of Dr. Thomas Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Of course, you probably know that any physical activity, including walking, is a boon to your overall health. But walking in particular comes with a host of benefits. Here's a list of five that may surprise you.

1. It counteracts the effects of weight-promoting genes. Harvard researchers looked at 32 obesity-promoting genes in over 12,000 people to determine how much these genes actually contribute to body weight. They then discovered that, among the study participants who walked briskly for about an hour a day, the effects of those genes were cut in half.

2. It helps tame a sweet tooth. A pair of studies from the University of Exeter found that a 15-minute walk can curb cravings for chocolate and even reduce the amount of chocolate you eat in stressful situations. And the latest research confirms that walking can reduce cravings and intake of a variety of sugary snacks.

3. It reduces the risk of developing breast cancer. Researchers already know that any kind of physical activity blunts the risk of breast cancer. But an American Cancer Society study that zeroed in on walking found that women who walked seven or more hours a week had a 14% lower risk of breast cancer than those who walked three hours or fewer per week. And walking provided this protection even for the women with breast cancer risk factors, such as being overweight or using supplemental hormones.

4. It eases joint pain. Several studies have found that walking reduces arthritis-related pain, and that walking five to six miles a week can even prevent arthritis from forming in the first place. Walking protects the joints — especially the knees and hips, which are most susceptible to osteoarthritis — by lubricating them and strengthening the muscles that support them.

5. It boosts immune function. Walking can help protect you during cold and flu season. A study of over 1,000 men and women found that those who walked at least 20 minutes a day, at least 5 days a week, had 43% fewer sick days than those who exercised once a week or less. And if they did get sick, it was for a shorter duration, and their symptoms were milder.

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How fast you walk could be just as important for your health as how many steps you take each day, a new study suggests.

Researchers from the University of Sydney and the University of Southern Denmark found that 10,000 steps each day is the “sweet spot” to help lower the risk of disease and death. They also found that a faster pace, such as a brisk power walk, can have even greater benefits.

The data was collated as part of the largest study tracking step counts in relation to health outcomes.

Researchers monitored 78,500 UK adults between 2013 and 2015 using wearable trackers and compared this with their health outcomes seven years later . The results were published in the journals JAMA Internal Medicine and JAMA Neurology.

Dr Matthew Ahmadi, the co-lead author of the paper and a research fellow at the University of Sydney, said the study found that by walking 10,000 steps a day “you could lower your risk of dementia by about 50%, and for cardiovascular disease and cancer, you’d be lowering it between 30 to 40%.”

Walking at a fast pace was associated with further benefits for all outcomes including dementia, heart disease, cancer and death.

The study also found that every 2,000 steps lowered the risk of premature death incrementally by 8 to 11%, up to about 10,000 steps a day.

While a higher number of daily steps was linked to a lower risk of all-cause dementia, the risk was reduced by 25% with as few as 3,800 steps a day.

The idea of walking 10,000 steps a day to improve your health was originally conceived as part of a marketing strategy by a Japanese company, according to research published in 2019.

However, Prof Tony Blazevich, an expert in biomechanics at Edith Cowan University, said these outcomes make “heaps of sense”, particularly when looking at cardiovascular health.

“The more your blood flows through your arteries, the more they trigger the self-renewal processes in your arteries,” he said, pointing out that faster-paced walking increases people’s heart rate more than slower walking.

“Theoretically, if you can get your heart rate up and get the blood flowing faster you might repair your arteries a bit better. Extra blood flow can be really good for all parts of our body – our brains, our muscles, everything.”

When considering the link between walking and a reduced risk of cancer, Blazevich said there is a theory that cancers are strongly linked with inflammation in our bodies.

“We know that exercise is one of the best ways [to minimise] inflammation,” he said.

Over the years researchers have debated the daily step count people should aim for to achieve improved health outcomes. Blazevich said most studies say people should aim for between 7,000 and 10,000 steps.

“Generally what we find is that going from nothing to something gives us the biggest bang for buck,” he said. “Say at the moment you’re only doing around 3,000 steps a day, if you go up to 5,000 that will have a relatively big effect.”

Prof Tim Olds, a behavioural epidemiology researcher at the University of South Australia, said for the majority of people the more exercise they do the better, with diminishing returns. Typically, the health benefits of walking tend to level off or plateau at higher step counts.

“The first 5,000 steps does much more good than the next 5,000 steps and so on,” he said. “If the first unit gives you one unit of good, the next unit is another half unit of good.

“The question then is: where do you draw the line?”

Olds said there is “no magic figure”, but 10,000 steps is a reasonable aim when built into your day-to-day lifestyle.

“Start off modestly and slowly and just build up gradually bit-by-bit each day, or each week at least, until you find what you’re comfortable with [and] that fits in with your lifestyle,” he said.

“I really recommend you have some time of the day which is your exercise time and it has absolute priority.”

This could be as easy as getting off the bus a few stops early and walking to work, or setting aside time each day to walk the dogs or listen to a podcast while walking, Olds said.

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