A lifetime of chiropractic care – that's your #1 wellness tip, of course; but what should be next? According to a growing body of research, it's something so simple, yet so-often overlooked by patients and practitioners alike. Your #1 wellness tip for all patients after regular appointments with you should be: Walk more. Here's what multiple studies published in 2022 alone demonstrate about the health and wellness power of walking.
Walk the Risks Away
What risks? How about the risks of death from cardiovascular disease, cancer or another cause. New research suggests those health "complications" (we consider death the ultimate health "complication") can be significantly reduced simply by walking.
But how much walking – and how fast? Good questions. According to a recent study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, more steps (up to approximately 10,000 per day, the recommended daily amount) is best, associated with lower risks of death from the above conditions. The same study also found that stepping cadence (intensity) correlated with lower death risks.
In other words, more steps = increasingly reduced risks; greater intensity while stepping = increasingly (and independently) reduced risks as well.
But that's not all. According to a separate study, walking also reduces the risk of cognitive decline, an increasingly concerning health issue that may seem worse than death, depending on the severity. Published in JAMA Neurology, this study came to similar conclusions as the first study with regard to step count and step intensity: Walking just under 10,000 steps per day reduces dementia risk, with even stronger associations when steps are performed at a higher intensity.
The risk reduction? How about cutting your dementia risk in half just by getting in the requisite number of steps; and an even greater risk reduction by walking fewer steps (around 6,000 per day), but at a high intensity.
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Two Minutes After Eating
"I don't have the time" is repeatedly mentioned as a top reason for not exercising consistently, failing to start an exercise program or discontinuing one. While we're not claiming to understand how busy your patients' average day is or what can complicate their ability to exercise, we hope you can agree that two minutes isn't impossible, right? Good, because those two minutes can make a big difference.
We're talking about two minutes of walking after eating, and the big difference it can make relates to blood glucose and insulin. The diabetes epidemic is in full swing, with projections suggesting it will only get worse in the next few decades. The body's ability to regulate blood sugar is key to diabetes (type 2 diabetes) prevention.
According to a new analysis of previous studies, light-intensity walks after eating (two to five minutes per bout) reduces not only blood glucose, but also insulin; more so than simply standing. Doing either was superior to sitting; something too many people do during the course of the day and following meals. Findings appear in the journal Sports Medicine and are based on a review of seven one-day studies involving adults ages 18 and older who were generally overweight or obese (and thus at higher risk for blood glucose / insulin issues to begin with).
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Walking for Knee OA
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis – swelling and tenderness in one or more joints. With osteoarthritis, the cartilage that cushions and protects the ends of bones wears down with time, which is why OA is often referred to as "wear and tear" arthritis. Regardless of the moniker, pain is a major consequence of OA, particularly pain affecting the hands, hips, spine and knees.
With that said, you would think walking would be difficult, if not impossible (or at least not contraindicated) for OA sufferers if their joint pain involves the knees, but research recommendations suggest walking is actually beneficial for people with knee OA.
Study findings published in Arthritis & Rheumatology demonstrate that knee OA sufferers (ages 50 and older) who walk regularly are 40 percent less likely to experience frequent new knee pain compared to non-walkers.
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10 Minutes a Day for Seniors
On the one hand, getting older generally means you have more time to do things – including exercise. On the other hand, getting older also can mean health issues that limit one's ability to do things – again, including exercise.
Since we know how important physical activity is (at all stages of life), how can we make sure we participate ... even when we're in our 80s? Even 10 minutes a day can make a difference.
Ten minutes a day helps people live longer when they're 85 or older, according to research presented at the European Society of Cardiology's (ESC) 2022 Congress. It doesn't have to be high-impact, strenuous activity; we're talking 10 minutes of slow walking – a little over one hour per week.
During the study period, octogenarians who walked 10 minutes or more per day had 40 percent and 39 percent lower relative risks of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, respectively, compared to similarly-aged inactive seniors. Of note, less than 8 percent met the guideline recommendations for moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity.
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Editor's Note: Research summaries in this article are reprinted from To Your Health, the patient-education e-newsletter produced by MPA Media, publisher of Dynamic Chiropractic. For more information about To Your Health and how you can use it to help educate and grow your patient base, click here.
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