How the way of walking can reveal the age of your brain

You can also reveal how fragile a person is and predict how well she will respond to rehabilitation after a stroke.

While it is normal for people to walk more slowly as they age, a precipitated decrease in the speed of someone's march could indicate that something more serious is happening.

“When a person's normal rhythm decreases, he is often associated with underlying health impairments,” says Christina Dieli-Conwright, a medical professor at Harvard's Faculty of Medicine, who studies the effects of the exercise on the cancer prognosis.

“It is possible that the person suffers a chronic disease that has prevented him from moving so much or adopted a sedentary lifestyle. This means that, most likely, he has experienced a decrease in muscle strength and joint mobility, which, unfortunately, entails a greater deterioration of health,” says Dieli-Conwright.

To perform the speed test when walking, everything you need is a stopwatch and a means to measure the distance, such as a measure.

There are two common versions:

If you are outdoors and you have a lot of space, you can do the 10 -meter walking speed test.

First, it measures 5 meters, followed by another 10 m. To start, it is recommended to walk 5 m to reach normal speed and then walk to normal rhythm for 10 m. To calculate your speed when walking, simply divide 10 m for the amount of seconds that took that distance walking.

As an alternative, there are many applications that you can use to measure your speed when walking, including physical activity trackers such as Walkmeter, Mapmywalk, Strava and Google Fit, which use GPS to track the distance and time, which allows them to calculate your speed.

To have an idea of ​​how you compare yourself with other people, the average speed when walking a woman from 40 to 49 years is 1.39 m/sys of 1.43 m/s for a man aged 40 to 49.

If the age is 50 to 59, the average speed when walking is 1.31 m/s for a woman and 1.43 m/s for a man.

In the case of people between 60 and 69, the average running speed drops to 1.24 m/s for women and 1.43 m/s.

For people between 70 and 79, the average speed when walking is 1.13 m/s for a woman and 1.26 m/s for a man.

Finally, for people between 80 and 89, the speed of march is around 0.94 m/s for a woman and 0.97 m/s for a man.

Studies have shown that the speed of march is a significant predictor of life expectancy in older adults.

For example, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh meet the results of nine studies that together carried out more than 34,000 adults living in the community, 65 years or more, with ages between the ages of six and 21.

The study showed that the speed of the march was significantly associated with life expectancy.

For example, men with the slower walking speeds at 75 had a 19% chance of living 10 years, compared to men with faster walking speeds, which had an 87% chance of surviving.

An explanation is that people who are already sick tend to be less mobile.

However, a study carried out in 2009 in France discovered that even among healthy adults over 65, participants walked at low speed had about three times more likely to die of cardiovascular disease during the study period, compared to people who walked faster.

“Walking seems so simple: most of us do not think about it, we simply do it,” says Line Rasmussen, principal researcher of the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Duke, North Carolina.

“But walking actually depends on many different body systems working together: your bones and muscles transport you and move you, your eyes help you see where you are going, your heart and lungs circulate blood and oxygen, and your brain and nerves coordinate everything,” adds Rasmussen.

According to Rasmussen, as we age, the function of these systems begins to decrease, and a slower speed can reflect this general decline and be an advanced age sign.

This not only applies to older adults. In a 2019 study, Rasmussen and his colleagues discovered that even at age 45, the speed when walking a person could predict the rhythm at which his brain and body were aging.

Rasmussen and researchers at the University of Duke surveyed 904 45 -year -old people who participated in the multidisciplinary study of Dumedin's health, a longitudinal research project that followed the lives of more than 1,000 people born between 1972 and 1973 in Dunedin, New Zealand.

Study individuals have been evaluated their health and cognitive function throughout their lives periodically.

“I was surprised how much variation in the speed when walking between people of the same age,” says Rasmussen.

“It could be expected that everyone at 45 were at some intermediate point, but some walked as fast as healthy people, while others walked as slowly as many older adults,” he says.

The study revealed that 45 -year -old people with slower gear speed showed signs of “accelerated aging”, with their lungs, teeth and immunological systems in a worse state compared to those who walked faster.

They also had 'biomarkers' associated with a faster rate of aging, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and lower cardiorespiratory capacity.

They discovered that those who walked slowly also presented other signs of poor physical health, as less grip force in their hands and greater difficulty in getting up from a chair.

“What surprised me most was to find a link between the speed at 45 years old and their cognitive abilities from early childhood,” says Rasmussen.

“This suggests that speed when walking is not only a sign of aging, but also a window to brain health throughout life.”

As always, readers who classify as slow walkers should not be discouraged too much, since there are many things we can do to improve our speed when walking.

As part of their research to help cancer patients, dieli-conwright produces exercise regimes to help people recover from chemotherapy to recover their strength.

Participants are advised to increase the duration and intensity of their walking exercise every three or four weeks to improve their physical condition. There are even simple things that people can do.

“Take advantage of any opportunity you have to walk more regularly, since staying physically active is very important,” says Dieli-Conwright. Their tips include parking further from your destination, meeting with friends to walk socially or take a pet to the local park.

“It is important to take breaks to walk, especially for people who have a more sedentary job,” says Dieli-Conwright.

Even if it is a five -minute pause to go to the bathroom or a fast five -minute walk around the apple, it is vital to interrupt that adaptation time.

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