Do You Walk Fast Enough to Ward Off an Early Death?
Recent research published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings found that your walking speed may affect your lifespan.
Researchers found that brisk walkers may live longer, regardless of their body mass index (BMI).
Brisk-walking women can enjoy up to a 15-year life expectancy boost over slower-walking women. The number can be up to 20 years for men.
Do you always pass slow walkers on the sidewalk, even if you are not in any real hurry? That may bode well for your lifespan, according to new research published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
In the study, researchers took self-reported walking speeds and body mass indexes (BMI) of nearly 475,000 participants, and followed up with them for nearly seven years. There were around 12,800 deaths in that time.
They used this data to estimate the lifespan of the participants. They discovered that regardless of BMI, brisk walkers enjoyed a longer longevity than the slow walkers. The life expectancy of brisk-walking women ranged from 87 to 88, and from 85 to 87 in brisk-walking men. Slow-walking women, on the other hand, had a life expectancy of 72 to 85. Men who walked slow had a life expectancy of 65 to 81.
In fact, women who walked briskly, at over 4 mph, could enjoy a life-expectancy boost of up to 15 years longer than those who walked at less than 3 mph. The increase for men could be up to 20 years, said Francesco Zaccardi, Ph.D., a clinical epidemiologist at the Leicester Diabetes Center in Leicester, England.
“Walking pace is a very good marker of cardiopulmonary health and general health,” he said.
Heightened cardio health may explain why brisk walkers seem to have longer life expectancies than slow walkers. Previous research backs this up: A study published in JAMA found that the more fit you are, the less likely you are to risk an early death.
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Though no definitive cause-and-effect relationship between walking pace and longevity can be derived from this observational study, the researchers noted the important role getting in brisk steps can have on a long life. So, whether you are headed to the office kitchen for an afternoon coffee or out walking the dog, make sure you hit at least 100 steps per minute. (Previous research has determined that 100 to 129 steps per minute counts as moderate intensity exercise, while anything above that is considered vigorous.)
“These numbers tell us that walking pace is a very strong marker of longer life,” Zaccardi said.
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