Fast Walkers

When you come from a big family like I do you get used a certain amount of teasing.  My family is made up people from different jobs, religions and political parties.  As children we rarely held back comments about each other.  Age has softened our edges but none of us is known as shrinking violets.  The criticism my family gives me can sometimes be tough to take, but it also helps to keep me grounded.  They will tell me honestly what they think when other people either wouldn’t care or wouldn’t dare tell me their thoughts.  However if you criticize you are inviting debate in my family.  When you are young it is called arguing.

So what did I do??? Well… I am a fast walker.  The family joke.  You can imagine when I came across an article that shows that fast walkers are healthier, I almost framed it.  The author must come from a large family as well.  He had to justify his habits just like me.

The Article is in this month’s Archives of Internal Medicine, not the  2010 Sibling’s Guide to Improving Your Mother’s Other Children.

What the study did was look at women from age 60 to age 70.  During those years it compared women that aged “successfully” compared to those that did not.  Successful aging was defined as being free of most chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, strokes and many others.  This could be just another study that shows once again, those people that are active age well and don’t see their doctors much.  But it has a twist. No matter what your weight, fast walkers seemed to have fewer problems than slow walkers. 

Another article in the same issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that resistance training (weight training) once or twice a week for one year, improved mental functioning.   Test results showed improved memory, brain volume, gait speed, attention, and conflict resolution.

So science seems to show fast walkers as less likely to have chronic health problems and to have bigger brains.  Gym rats that lift weights can walk faster than their siblings that don’t lift weights.  However I am not sure how they define “conflict resolution”.

Gotta go, Mom’s on the phone… oops.

Physical Activity at Midlife in Relation to Successful Survival in Women at age 70 Years or Older. Archives of Internal Medicine 2010; 170(2):194-201

Resistance Training and Executive Functions, a 12 Month Randomized Controlled Trial. Archives of Internal Medicine 2010; 170(2):170-178