Walking just 40 minutes a day could seriously benefit your health.
Check out these amazing perks to taking a simple stroll around the
neighborhood.
Walking is known to melt your thighs and perk up your bum. But its
healthy resumé boasts some even more impressive accomplishments, from cash
savings to increasing the odds of survival for breast cancer patients. A lot of
attention has been paid to getting in 10,000 steps of walking, jogging or
running a day. A 40-minute, two-mile walk will chip away half of those steps,
and everyday activities can usually accumulate the other half.
Here are eight reasons to take those extra steps and make walking
a part of your healthy lifestyle:
1. It deflects diabetes. New research links brisk walking to a significant risk reduction
for developing type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance is a predictor of this
disease, even in people with normal glucose levels. But a recent British study
found that people with a family history of the disease who walked briskly, or
performed some other type of moderate to vigorous activity on a routine basis,
improved insulin sensitivity.
2. It soups up your sex life. Sex and exercise go hand-in-hand. In a study of women between 45
and 55 years old, those who exercised, including brisk walking, reported not
only greater sexual desire, but better sexual satisfaction, too.
3. It saves you on gym costs. In this economy, people are cutting excesses, and that includes
trips to the health club. In an American Heart Association survey, a quarter of
the 1,000 people questioned had axed their gym memberships sometime in the
previous six months. But no matter where you live, there’s a place you can
pound the pavement or trek a trail, and 150 minutes of moderate-intensity
walking a week can help manage stress and prevent heart disease. Moderate
walking equals an average of about 100 steps per minute. San Diego State
University researchers suggest using a pedometer and aiming for 1,000 steps in
10 minutes, and working up to 3,000 steps in 30 minutes.
4. It can get you off meds. Using data from the National Walkers’ Health Study, including more
than 32,000 women and 8,000 men, researchers found that those who took the longest
weekly walks, not necessarily accumulated the most mileage per week, were more
likely to use less medication. This shouldn’t deter you from taking shorter
walks more frequently throughout the week, but you should consider squeezing in
a longer walk once a week, perhaps on the weekend when you have more spare
time.
5. It can help fade
fibromyalgia pain. This
chronic condition affects more than 4 percent of the population, and often
involves pain, fatigue and brain fog. A small study found that in women 32 to
70 years old, those who walked 60 minutes, performed light exercises, and
stretched three times a week for 18 weeks reported significant improvements in
walking and mental capacity, and were less tired and depressed.
6. It helps you beat breast
cancer. Women who
walk regularly after being diagnosed with breast cancer have a 45 percent
greater chance of survival than those who are inactive, according to a study
published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Yale researchers heading up the
study also found that those who exercised in the year before being diagnosed
were 30 percent more likely to survive, compared to women who didn't exercise
leading up to their diagnosis.
7. Strolling reduces stroke
risk. Walking
briskly for just 30 minutes, five days a week can significantly lower your risk
of suffering a stroke, according to University of South Carolina researchers.
After studying 46,000 men and 15,000 women over the course of 18 years, those
with increased fitness levels associated with regular brisk walking had a 40
percent lower risk of suffering a stoke than those with the lowest fitness
level.
8. It can save your mind. Italian researchers enlisted 749 people suffering from memory
problems in a study and measured their walking and other moderate activities, such
as yard work. At the four-year follow-up, they found that those who expended
the most energy walking had a 27 percent lower risk of developing dementia than
the people who expended the least. This could be the result of physical
activity’s role in increasing blood flow to the brain.
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