Effects of Walking on Mortality among Nonsmoking Retired Men
One of my favorite "Smart@ss" remarks I make to my olde patients is "if you don't keep moving they will throw dirt on top of you" Well a study down in Honolulu HI revealed that elderly men who had no physical limitations lived longer if they walked at least 2 miles a day.
"During the follow-up period, there were 208 deaths. After adjustment for age, the mortality rate among the men who walked less than 1 mile (1.6 km) per day was nearly twice that among those who walked more than 2 miles (3.2 km) per day (40.5 percent vs. 23.8 percent, P = 0.001). The cumulative incidence of death after 12 years for the most active walkers was reached in less than 7 years among the men who were least active. The distance walked remained inversely related to mortality after adjustment for overall measures of activity and other risk factors"
One point that I noticed in reading the study was that they excluded 29 men from the because they reported jogging. It would be interesting to see if they faired any better or worse than the walkers.
Additionally,I think the next study should be following elderly men who lift weights vs elderly who walk. I have blogged about the benefits of strength for those men with Hypertension.
Dr David Marcon
Work Smarter Not Harder
Cincinnati Ohio
www.drdavidmarcon.com
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