Some people find it difficult to recover after an upsetting experience.
A lifetime of this habit can slow down biological aging for many years.
A lifetime of this habit can slow down biological aging for many years.
Walking pace could directly affect the biological aging process, research finds.
An analysis of data from 405,981 UK adults found a connection between walking pace and a biological age marker called leucocyte telomere length (LTL).
Everyday brisk walking for 10 minutes may seem tiny, but the effect is not, as it has been shown to increase longevity.
Moreover, a lifetime of this habit can slow down biological aging for many years.
Previous research suggests that fast walkers have greater physical fitness, are less likely to develop cardiovascular disease, and have up to 20 years higher life expectancy than slow walkers.
To see whether these claims are true, the current study examined the difference in LTL between slow and fast walkers and found that brisk walking could lead to a biological age 16 years younger.
Telomeres are the caps on the ends of chromosomes (DNA molecules) protecting them from damage.
Telomeres become shorter with each cell division.
When telomeres reach the point that they can’t get any shorter, the cell cannot divide and it dies.
Telomere length is often measured in white blood cells (leucocytes).
Measuring telomere length is an effective method to study its shortening in relation to age-related diseases, cancer and heart disease.
Undoubtedly walking has social, mental, and physical health benefits, but the effect of walking pace on human life expectancy with regards to LTL has not been studied thoroughly before.
Dr Paddy Dempsey, the study’s first author, said:
“Previous research on associations between walking pace, physical activity and telomere length has been limited by inconsistent findings and a lack of high-quality data.
This research uses genetic data to provide stronger evidence for a causal link between faster walking pace and longer telomere length.
Data from wrist-worn wearable activity tracking devices used to measure habitual physical activity also supported a stronger role of habitual activity intensity (e.g. faster walking) in relation to telomere length.
This suggests measures such as a habitually slower walking speed are a simple way of identifying people at greater risk of chronic disease or unhealthy ageing, and that activity intensity may play an important role in optimising interventions.
For example, in addition to increasing overall walking, those who are able could aim to increase the number of steps completed in a given time (e.g. by walking faster to the bus stop).”
The study was published in the journal Communications Biology (Dempsey et al., 2022).
Middle-aged and older adults performed better on cognitive tests on days when they did more physical activity, the study found.
Exercise is now considered one of the main protective factors against dementia.
An easy way to boost your immune system against infections.
An easy way to boost your immune system against infections.
According to experts, doing daily exercise can help your body’s natural defence system to fight infections.
Past studies show that habitual moderate to vigorous intensity workouts can boost the immune system.
A review suggests that moderate to vigorous intensity exercise on a regular basis helps reduce the chance of respiratory infection, several diseases and some types of cancer.
Seemingly with each session of exercise, immune cells are exchanged between the tissues and the blood, contributing to immune surveillance and so reducing risk of illness.
Immune surveillance is a process through which foreign substances such as viruses, bacteria, or tumour cells are watched and destroyed.
Everyday physical activity in the short-term strengthens the immune system to fight pathogens, including coronavirus.
Also, in the long-run it lowers infection risk by slowing down the immune system decline that naturally happens with aging.
Dr Turner and Dr Campbell in this review consider whether exercise could have a negative impact on immune function or if athletes are more susceptible to infections than the rest of us.
They find that if athletes get more infections it is because of the amount of travelling and exposure to new pathogens in different countries or at social events.
Other factors that make athletes more prone to infection are psychological stress, poor sleep and poor diet.
Dr John Campbell, study co-author, said:
“People should not fear that their immune system will be suppressed by exercise placing them at increased risk of Coronavirus.
Provided exercise is carried out according to latest government guidance on social distancing, regular exercise will have a tremendously positive effect on our health and wellbeing, both today and for the future.”
Daily aerobic exercise like cycling, walking, or running or even more vigorous exercise are all useful.
For those with a health issue that may restrict the amount of exercise that can be done then ‘moving more’ is better than doing nothing.
Strength training at home such as Pilates, weight lifting, shoulder presses or bench presses can help movement, flexibility, and maintenance of muscles.
The study was published in the journal Exercise Immunology Review (Simpson et al., 2020).
Any amount of this exercise can improve health and increase longevity.
Any amount of this exercise can improve health and increase longevity.
Any amount of running at whatever speed you run — and as little as once a week — could protect you from early death.
This finding comes from a review of 14 studies involving 232,149 people who were followed for 5.5 to 35 years.
Researchers investigated whether running or jogging can increase lifespan and, if so, will the intensity or duration of the exercise matter?
The answer was that running itself is a remedy as it can prevent the risk of death from any cause, including cancer and heart disease.
The authors of the study wrote:
“Any amount of running, even just once a week, is better than no running, while higher doses of running
may not necessarily be associated with greater mortality benefits.Increased rates of participation in running, regardless of its dose, would probably lead to substantial improvements in population health and longevity.”
They found that any dose of running lowered the risk of early death from any cause by 27 percent when compared with no running.
The runners also had a 23 percent lower risk of death by cancer and 30 percent lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease than those who didn’t run or jog at all.
The World Health Organization reports that 31 percent of adults worldwide were physically inactive in 2008 and a sedentary lifestyle accounted for 3.2 million deaths each year.
The guidelines for physical activity for adults are at least 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity per week.
However, this study suggests that even the smallest amount of running — for instance, a weekly run of less than 50 minutes at a speed of 6 miles (8 km) per hour — will still lower the risk of death significantly.
Dr Zeljko Pedisic, the study’s first author, said:
“Any running is probably good for your health and you can achieve those benefits by running even just once a week or running 50 minutes a week, but that shouldn’t discourage those who run more than that amount, who maybe enjoy running three times a week or six times a week.”
The study was published in British Journal of Sports Medicine (Pedisic et al., 2019).
After listening to a self-selected motivational playlist, runners who were mentally tired displayed the same performance as those who were mentally fresh.
The study showed that exercise caused lower depression risk, but depression was not linked to less exercise.
The study showed that exercise caused lower depression risk, but depression was not linked to less exercise.
Just 15 minutes of running per day is enough to significantly reduce depression risk, a genetic analysis concludes.
Alternatively, around one hour of moderate activity will do the same job.
However, any activity at all — including housework and gardening — is better than none for reducing depression risk.
The conclusions come from a genetic analysis of almost half a million people.
Dr Karmel Choi, the study’s first author, explained the key result:
“On average, doing more physical activity appears to protect against developing depression.
Any activity appears to be better than none; our rough calculations suggest that replacing sitting with 15 minutes of a heart-pumping activity like running, or with an hour of moderately vigorous activity, is enough to produce the average increase in accelerometer data that was linked to a lower depression risk.”
While more exercise has frequently been linked to lower depression risk, it is hard to determine cause and effect.
The difficulty is that people who are depressed may move around less.
So, does depression cause less exercise or is more exercise the cause of less depression?
To resolve this problem, the new study used a different method based on genetics.
Dr Karmel Choi, the study’s first author, said:
“Using genetic data, we found evidence that higher levels of physical activity may causally reduce risk for depression.
Knowing whether an associated factor actually causes an outcome is important, because we want to invest in preventive strategies that really work.”
The new conclusions are based on data from almost half-a-million people, 91,000 of whom wore wrist bands that measured their physical activity.
The study showed that exercise caused lower depression risk, but depression was not linked to less exercise.
Dr Choi and colleagues will now go on to look at who might benefit from exercise the most:
“We currently are looking at whether and how much physical activity can benefit different at-risk groups, such as people who are genetically vulnerable to depression or those going through stressful situations and hope to develop a better understanding of physical activity to promote resilience to depression.”
The study was published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry (Choi et al., 2018).
Stress and anxiety make it particularly hard for people to exercise, the study found.
The purpose of your walk reveals the level of your health.
The purpose of your walk reveals the level of your health.
Those who walk for a reason rate their health as better, a study has found.
Compared to leisurely walks, a brisk paced walk is a healthier option as it improves brain, heart, and lung function.
Past studies have found that fast walking helps burn more calories but more importantly increases longevity and lowers the risk of early death from heart disease.
This study reveals that people tend to walk faster when they have a purpose, such as walking to work and consider themselves healthier than slow walkers.
If the purpose of the trip is essential — like walking to the grocery shop or work — it makes people walk quicker, leading to better health outcomes when compared with casual strolls.
Dr Gulsah Akar, one of the study’s author, said:
“We found that walking for utilitarian purposes significantly improves your health, and that those types of walking trips are easier to bring into your daily routine.
So, basically, both as city planners and as people, we should try to take the advantage of this as much as possible.”
The research team collected data from the National Household Travel Survey on 125,885 American adults who reported the amount of time spent on walking for various purposes.
More than 500,000 trips were analysed and reasons for the trips included walking from home to get to work, walking from home to buy goods, social and recreational walks.
The data showed that walking trips for any reason and for any duration generally made people feel healthier than those who drove or used public transport.
People who walked an extra 10 minutes from home for work — for example, walking from home to the train station — were more likely to have a 6 percent better health score than those who walked for other purposes.
People who walked from home to the shops or for recreational activities scored 3 percent better.
On average, people who walked for work had a 2.7 miles per hour faster rate compared to other walking trips.
Recreational walking, for example, walking after dinner, showed a 2.5 miles per hour higher speed.
Moreover, people tend to have longer walking trips if they start from home than those walks that start from elsewhere.
Dr Akar said:
“I was thinking the differences would not be that significant, that walking is walking, and all forms of walking are helpful.
And that is true, but walking for some purposes has significantly greater effect on our health than others.”
It seems that replacing this activity with the sedentary part of our day, say commuting on foot instead of driving, would give a healthier feeling.
Dr Akar added:
“That means going to a gym or a recreation center aren’t the only ways to exercise.
It’s an opportunity to put active minutes into our daily schedules in an easy way.”
The study was published in the Journal of Transport & Health (Pae & Akar, 2020).
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