In an interesting article, Medium blogger and physician Michael Hunter suggests regular short walks to prolong life or maintain health as we age. A daily 15-minute walk as your physical activity of the day may improve your health, he suggests. His patients often ask whether walking counts as exercise and are surprised when he would say “absolutely!”
Even minimal physical activity is associated with improvements in health, Hunter suggests. Do it right, and your blood pressure may go down, your cholesterol improves, and you can experience memory improvements. In addition, you can reduce your risk for diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and more.
Walking can be central to losing weight, dropping blood pressure and cholesterol, and boosting memory, as well as lowering your risk for diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. Hunter prescribes walking to my patients, a “wonder drug” with health and wellness benefits we often underestimate. Moreover, it’s free, and there are no side effects. It keeps you fit.
The least fit healthy adults have an early death risk that is 4.5-times that of the fittest. You may find it surprising that an individual’s fitness level represented a more important predictor of early death than established risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes.
So, get started.
Source: Michael Hunter in Does Walking Extend Life? on Medium
