Walking and living longer
|
Listen to Tip |
From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
Want an idea of how long you'll live? Check how fast you walk. Researchers who analyzed data in nine studies involving close to 35,000 people ages 65 and older say those whose usual walking pace was faster tended to live longer.
At the University of Pittsburgh, Stephanie Studenski:
``The reason that there's a relationship between walking speed and longevity is because your walking speed is a very simple reflection of how well many of your body systems are doing.'' (11 seconds)
The usual recommendation for health is that people should be active by, for instance, doing at least 30 minutes of brisk walking on most if not all days of the week.
The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Learn more at hhs.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.