If you can walk at this rate, you are in great shape, say the doctors
Take an instantaneous of your health in just six seconds.
We all know that walk - In particular as part of a rigorous routine - can benefit your heart and increase your health. Now, experts say that it can also offer crucial clues not only on your fitness levels, but also your projected longevity.
In fact, some clinicians use a simple walking test to determine the likelihood that their patients suffer from certain loss of health. They say that if you can walk at a particular pace, you probably operate with a higher physical function and you can have a lower risk of "illness, handicap or death".
Sara Bonne , MD, medical director of the Healthy Longevity Clinic at Mayo Clinic at Minnesota, recently declared Initiate of Business That she uses this secondary march test as a marker of health and longevity.
"It tells me how well people work well, how their muscles move and work together," said good. "We can do complex tests to measure how good the level of physical condition of people is, but it is a smaller and easier version that always tells me: do you move well and do you move for your age?"
In relation: This number of steps reduces your risk of death by almost half - and it is less than 10,000 .
Here's how to try it at home:
To try it, start by measuring a flat and straight path extending over six meters, or 19.68 feet. Then, using a stopwatch to timer yourself, walk at your highest possible speed. You may have to warm up starting two to three meters behind your starting point. Start the timer when you cross the starting line, not before.
Older adults who can finish the test in less than six seconds at a rate of one meter per second are considered to have a “high operation speed”. Meanwhile, a 2005 study suggests that taking more than 8.6 seconds to browse this distance is associated with a higher risk of falling or hospitalization.
In relation: Are you enough to pass this "old man test" which measures balance and coordination?
Why the speed of walking means so much:
In addition to indicating a higher risk of falling, a reduced approach speed can also point out faster organic aging, suggests research.
According to the National Health Institutes (NIH), the individuals "with a slower speed of approach aged faster, as measured by a set of 19 biomarkers who included the body mass index, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, cardioborate form and gum health."
Referring to a 2019 study published in Jama Network Open , NIH adds that heart and brain aging has a significant correlation with the speed of walking.
"Compared to the participants who walked faster, they had a smaller brain, a thinner cerebral cortex (which controls thought, information processing and other brain functions) and more hyperintensities of the white substance - a sign of vascular disease and a factor of risk of stroke and dementia," wrote the experts. "Participants with a slower speed of approach also made it possible to do fewer tests on memory tests, processing speed, reasoning and other cognitive functions."
Another study published in the Journal of the American Gériatrics Society have found that women aged 50 to 79 who were walking with rapid speed saw their risk of reduced heart failure by 34% compared to slower walkers.
In relation: If you can lift so many books, you are in great shape, say doctors .
How to improve your approach speed:
It is not uncommon for your walking speed to slow down as you get older. However, experts say that making a concerted effort to maintain both your number of steps and your step speed can protect you from unwanted health results.
In fact, the centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend aiming 150 minutes Liability every week as a healthy means of reducing your risk of chronic disease, including heart disease, brain vascular accidents, type 2 diabetes, dementia and certain types of cancer.
And remember - the bursts of activity throughout the day can be just as effective as walking episodes. Not only will this help develop muscles and balance, but it will also help build endurance, which makes it possible for forms of exercise.
