How Can Walking Change Your Health?
You’ve heard it before: Walk 10,000 steps a day for better health.
But have you ever wondered where that recommendation came from?
As Michael Mosley writes in his article, “Forget Walking 10,000 Steps a Day,” the 10,000 step recommendation actually originated in a 1960s marketing campaign in Japan. Leading up to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, Dr. Yoshiro Hatano wanted to promote active lifestyles in the face of the negative influence of international health habits. As a researcher at Kyushu University of Health and Welfare, Dr. Hatano proposed that he could get his fellow Japanese to stay slim and healthy by encouraging them to increase their daily step count from 4,000 to 10,000. Now, decades later, the number has stuck.
While the 10,000 step goal is noble to strive for, it’s relatively arbitrary. Walking for better health is about so much more than simply hitting a certain number of steps every day. It’s about striving for a well-rounded healthy lifestyle. After all, in order to walk to change the world, you have to start by taking care of yourself.
Walking for Health
“Walking is a simple way to make a big change in your health,” according to Dr. Bob Sallis, a family physician at Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center.
Dr. Sallis believes that walking is a “wonder drug” capable of remedying many of today’s most pervasive medical problems. From diabetes, depression, breast and colon cancer, and high blood pressure, to cardiovascular disease, obesity, anxiety, and osteoporosis, all of these medical conditions can be cured, prevented, or reduced in severity through just 30 minutes of walking per day, five days a week, according to the Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health. Walking is a particularly effective treatment because — unlike many other forms of exercise — it’s low-impact and doesn’t require an investment in equipment or a gym membership. Huffington Post agrees that walking is the best form of exercise.
As a testament to the power of walking, Dr. Sallis has witnessed patients with diabetes who have seen their diabetes go away after beginning a walking program. While type 2 diabetes alone currently accounts for 34 percent of all Medicare costs, walking provides a free method of treatment and prevention. Unlike most prescription medications, the benefits of walking are almost immediate. According to Dr. Sallis, walking is a free medication with a host of other health benefits that other prescription medications cannot claim.
George Halvorson, the former Chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente, echoes these sentiments, arguing that the only way to overcome the chronic disease epidemics currently facing the world is through walking. Making walking a daily habit has wide-ranging health benefits, from reducing the likelihood of stroke in women by 43 percent to shortening the symptom time for the common cold by 46 percent.
The two most recent United States Surgeons General, Dr. Regina Benjamin and Dr. Vivek Murthy, are strong proponents of walking and walkability. The work of both Surgeons General, beginning with Benjamin’s appointment by President Barack Obama in 2009, led to the issuance of a formal Call to Action on Walking in the United States.
“A 30-minute walk is better than any pill,” believes Benjamin, an advocate of preventative medicine.
In keeping with this unique model of preventative care, the Surgeons General encourage doctors to check patients’ physical activity levels — especially time spent walking — in addition to routine health metrics such as blood pressure.
“Walking is an easy and inexpensive way to improve the health and well-being of all Americans,” asserts the Office of the Surgeon General. “Now is the time to step it up and make walking a national priority.”
A Step in the Right Direction
Regardless of how much he told his patients about the overwhelming benefits of walking, Dr. David Sabgir was frustrated that he could not get his patients to change their behavior. Dr. Sabgir, a cardiologist based out of Columbus, Ohio, knows a thing or two about the health benefits of walking.
“There are over 40 diseases that walking either prevents or treats,” he marvels.
When he isn’t with patients, he spends most of the day walking at his treadmill desk or walking around the medical care facility where he works, taking in all of the health benefits of the simple form of exercise. On the weekends, he can be found taking long walks around his local park.
One spring Saturday morning, he decided to invite his patients to join him for a walk in the park where he typically spends his weekends. He was overwhelmed by the response, as more than one hundred people joined him. This successful experiment led Dr. Sabgir to formalize the practice through Walk with a Doc.
Founded in 2005, Walk with a Doc began as a grassroots movement in which doctors would give a brief presentation on a health topic and then lead participants on a walk. Now, Walk with a Doc offers a formalized program that can easily be put into action by doctors. The organization has expanded to more than 300 cities around the world.
The Walk with a Doc website is filled with the stories of walkers and doctors who have been personally impacted by the organization’s work. Steve Sharp, from Dallas, Texas, was an active high school athlete who gained weight after 40 years of smoking and reducing his levels of physical activity. His increasingly large belly became a “pain in the you know what.”
After just one year of participating in Walk with a Doc, Steve lost 20 pounds. Walking became an integral part of his daily routine, and it led him to embrace other forms of physical activity such as biking. He has developed personal relationships with the doctor who leads his walks, Dr. Helfand, as well as the fellow walkers who hold him accountable to his wellness goals. After Steve had a carotid subclavian bypass surgery, Dr. Helfand visited him in the hospital, a testament to the strength of the patient-doctor relationships fostered by Walk with a Doc.
“Walking has motivated me to change my life, and other parts of my health as well,” Steve says, attesting to the power of walking in turning his life around.
As Steve discovered, being healthy means knowing your neighbors, contributing to the community, and being well in all senses of the word. What better way to start on the path towards total health than by walking?
Want to join me in walking for a better world? Email me at crc107@georgetown.edu or connect with me on LinkedIn. To read more about how you can change the world by walking, check out my latest book It Starts with a Step on Amazon.
