There is overwhelming evidence that walking reduce risk Type 2 diabetes and other diseases cancer, Heart disease and dementia.
american diabetes association It is recommended To reduce your risk of diabetes, take 10,000 steps per day or walk for at least 30 minutes every day.
walk at a faster pace That advantage could be improved, but researchers have so far not identified the ideal speed.
Ann analysis A paper published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that walking at a speed of at least 2.5 miles per hour, regardless of distance or number of steps, can significantly reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. This is the equivalent of brisk walking, about 87 steps per minute for men and 100 steps per minute for women.
Research shows that once people reach that threshold, their risk continues to decrease as they increase their speed. The analysis found that for every 0.6 mph increase in walking speed, the risk of type 2 diabetes decreased by 9%.
The analysis combined results from 10 studies involving more than 500,000 people in the US, Japan and UK who reported their walking habits. People who walked at an average walking speed (2 to 3 miles per hour) had a 15% lower risk of type 2 diabetes than those who walked at a slower pace.
They found that brisk walking (3 to 4 miles per hour) was associated with a 24% lower risk of type 2 diabetes, while long strides (more than 4 miles per hour) were associated with a 39% lower risk.
“Current strategies of increasing walking time and increasing the number of steps per day may be a good approach to reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes, but encouraging people to walk at faster speeds is also better.” said Ahmad Jaedi, lead author of the study. Nutrition researcher at Semnan University of Medical Sciences in Iran.
Walking briskly reduces body fat and lowers your risk of type 2 diabetes. However, Jayedi said the reduction in body fat did not fully explain the lower risk of diabetes among the participants in the analysis.
He said walking faster can also help build insulin resistance, or resistance to insulin, a hormone that helps regulate blood sugar levels.
“Increasing your walking pace not only increases your heart rate, but also increases muscle contraction, which helps improve insulin sensitivity, which is critical for diabetes prevention,” says Harvard University’s Dean of Nutrition. said Dr. Frank Fu. TH Chan School of Public Health, did not participate in the analysis.
In general, the Department of Health and Human Services: It is recommended 150 to 300 minutes per week of moderate physical activity such as brisk walking or biking, 75 to 150 minutes per week of vigorous physical activity such as jogging or running, or a combination thereof.
Amanda Paruch, an epidemiologist and kinesiologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said walking at 2.5 miles per hour or more “may be a good goal for some people in terms of reaching moderate-intensity activity. ” he said. the study.
But depending on age, fitness level, and health, achieving that speed may be difficult for some people, she says. A better rule of thumb is to walk at a pace that allows you to talk but not sing the lyrics to your favorite song, a sign that your heart rate is elevated enough, Parc said. .
Jochen Kressler, a professor of exercise and nutrition science at San Diego State University, says that moving below 2.5 mph may reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes. The new analysis did not examine whether walking slowly reduced the risk of diabetes compared with not walking at all, he said.
“Don’t take this to mean that if you don’t walk fast enough, it won’t be effective.” That’s not what this paper says at all. Doing something is better than doing nothing. , said Kressler, who was also not involved in the new study.
The researchers said that people with the lowest activity levels tended to see the greatest improvements in health when they started to increase their physical activity. And momentum is usually what matters most, he added.
“How many steps you take is probably more important than how fast you walk, but if you take the same number of steps but walk faster, you’ll probably get better results,” Kressler said.
