This Walking Change May Mean You're Ageing Faster Than Usual
It can reveal accelerated ageing in your mind and body.
We’ve written before at HuffPost UK about how changes to a person’s walking speed or style can sometimes be an early sign of dementia.
We also know that increased frailty can reveal an increased dementia risk nine years ahead of diagnosis.
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The NHS advises older adults (over 65) to get some form of exercise every single day, even if it’s only light movement, because it can help to combat the risks of heart disease and stroke.
But a group of researchers found that how someone’s gait (their walking style and speed) looks decades earlier than that may reveal “faster ageing” overall.
What does a person’s walking style say about how they’re ageing?
The researchers said that while gait speed is a well-known health marker for older adults, “little is known about the factors associated with gait speed earlier in life”.
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So, they looked at data from 904 New Zealanders who took part in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. The research took place over five decades of the participants’ lives ― from birth until they were 45.
They found that the people involved in the study who had a slower gait speed at aged 45 tended to have increased signs of ageing overall, including earlier facial ageing and more compromised teeth, lungs and immune systems.
Their brains seemed to have aged faster, too.
There was also “a mean difference of 16 IQ points between the slowest and fastest walkers”, a factor which researchers say was “remarkably” linked to how a lot of participants performed at cognitive tests aged just three years old.
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In short, the scientists say the “gait speed test is cheap, safe, easy to test repeatedly, and feasible to use among people in their 40s”.
So... will walking more help me to age slower?
This study didn’t seek to prove that ― they just found a link, not a cause.
But there’s some research to suggest that exercise can help to prevent the negative side-effects associated with ageing, and lots of evidence that tells us people who exercise more may live longer than those who don’t.
Benefits are seen even among those who pick up their first weight at 70.
The NHS recommends 150 minutes of low-intensity exercise or 75 minutes of higher-intensity exercise a week.
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