Walk This Way (faster, that is)
Wise & Well Weekly: The newsletter helping you make tomorrow a little better than today
Welcome back to your weekly dose of wisdom and wellness, with science-backed insights you can use to improve your physical, mental and emotional well-being. This week we’ve got an unusually large bounty of helpful and compelling stories to share, so be sure to scroll down. If you appreciate any of these highly curated, professionally edited articles, please follow Wise & Well and/or subscribe to this newsletter.
THIS WEEK’S SNAPSHOT
Science has repeatedly shown outsized health benefits of simply walking. As I wrote back in September:
Walking at least 3,967 steps per day is a minimum threshold to reduce the risk of death from any cause, according to a large review of research. For the average person, that’s around 1.7 miles (2.7 km) per day. Meanwhile, a mere 2,337 steps is the lower bar for lowering the risk of death from cardiovascular disease, specifically, the researchers concluded.
While no single study proves cause and effect, and there’s no ideal number of steps, there is zero question that daily walks of just about any duration improve cognition, emotional well-being and physical health, and increase the odds of longer life.
But how fast should you walk?
A moderate pace — whatever feels somewhat brisk to you, as an individual — is adequate for gaining many of the benefits. But research has shown faster walking can accomplish as much or more in the same amount of time or less.
New research finds a walking speed of at least 2.5 mph (4 km/hour) is linked to significantly lower risk of type 2 diabetes. (At that pace, in a 25-minute walk, you’d cover about a mile.) Each additional kilometer per hour (0.62 mph) was associated with a 9% further reduction in risk. The findings are detailed in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The researchers caution that it’s possible people who walk a lot are more physically active to begin with, which could play into the findings.
Experts suggest getting at least 22 minutes a day (150 minutes a week) of moderate to vigorous physical activity. Any way you can. Walking is a great way to do it, and you don’t have to hit the threshold all in one chunk each day. All your steps during the day add up in a positive equation of well-being. If you can go faster, the benefits may add up more quickly. But whatever, the big takeaway is to simply get moving, a little more tomorrow than yesterday.
Here are some related Medium articles to help you get started on a more active lifestyle, regardless of where you are now on the continuum of human movement:
HEALTHY READING
A selection of recent informative and insightful Wise & Well articles:
New Mind-Body Therapy Provides Stunning Relief for Chronic Back Pain
Chronic back pain affects 20% of US adults. Relief can be staggeringly elusive, as anyone dealing with the pain knows. A new treatment shows encouraging promise in clinical trials. Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) teaches patients to reinterpret their pain as a neutral sensation emanating from their brain. Sounds wild, right? If you struggle with chronic pain, this is a must-read.
— By Kathleen Murphy
Coming to Terms With Mental Health Labels
Mental health conditions like autism, depression and ADHD are often referred to as illnesses, diseases or disorders, terms that can be helpful for patients and mental health professionals. But many people dislike using those diagnostic labels to describe their mental states. So as editor of Wise & Well, I asked psychiatrist John Kruse what terms we writers should use, and which to avoid. He responded with this thoughtful and informative essay, offering superb advice that we can all lean into in writing or discussing mental health.
— John Kruse MD, PhD
The Most Important Meal of the Day?
Breakfast science is confusing and conflicting. This MD and clinical nutrition resident offers up a healthy heaping of information on the topic, so you can decide whether breakfast should be the most important meal in your day. Full disclosure: Multiple interpretations are possible!
— By Denny Pencheva, MD
Is Your Sleep Supplement Doing More Harm Than Good?
Melatonin supplements are used by people who may not benefit from them, in doses that are often too high. And in winter, when there are fewer hours of daylight, our bodies naturally produce more of the hormone, so if you use it regularly, you may wish to scale back your dose. Here’s everything you need to know.
— By Annie Foley
How Sleep Experts Sleep
Scientists who study sleep and its challenges are no different from you and me when it comes to successful slumber. Some sleep well, some not so great, and they all have bad nights now and then. One advantage they share, however, is an intimate knowledge of how to fall asleep more easily and — most important — get the vital minutes of high-quality deep sleep necessary to truly rejuvenate the mind and body each night. I’ve interviewed several of these experts, and you can learn from the tactics they lean on.
— By Robert Roy Britt
How to Survive Holiday Chaos (and Maybe Even Thrive)
Some people revel in holiday cheer. For others, it’s a time of disappointment, exhaustion and guilt over just not feeling it. So unless you plan to totally check out — and you know that’ll just add to your guilt — this writer and psychologist offers some great suggestions for challenging your expectations, greeting the holidays with an open mind, and cultivating a willingness to embrace whatever chaos arises.
— By Gail Post, PhD
What You Need to Know About Medication Withdrawal
Stopping medications abruptly, or even a steep reduction in dose, can cause unexpected troubling and even dangerous ripple effects in the mind and body. If you are considering stopping any medications — and that may well be the best thing for you, in consultation with your healthcare provider — this writer, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, explains what you need to know first.
— John Kruse MD, PhD
How to Properly Lubricate Your Vampire Eyes
At least 16 million US adults have dry eye disease. They don’t produce enough tears to properly lubricate their eyes. The surprising number of causes range from allergies to medications to poor diet and excessive screen time. Amid warnings about dangerously contaminated eye drops, here’s everything you need to know about the science of dry eyes and what you can do to alleviate the burning and itching.
— By Annie Foley
The Monstrous Impact of Ozempic
Millions of people are taking Ozempic to combat one or both of the twin scourges of obesity and diabetes. But can the drug save us from the enormous health and financial effects of these conditions? Problem is, Ozempic doesn’t address the root causes of obesity or diabetes, and it may have a greater impact on human behavior than we have bargained for.
— By John Kruse MD, PhD
RANDOM BIT OF WISDOM
“Walking for hours and miles becomes as automatic, as unremarkable, as breathing. At the end of the day you don’t think, ‘Hey, I did sixteen miles today,’ any more than you think, ‘Hey, I took eight-thousand breaths today.’ It’s just what you do.”
— Bill Bryson in A Walk in the Woods
Wise & Well writers are physicians, psychiatrists, research scientists, dieticians, fitness experts, journalists and other professionals who share their expertise to help you make tomorrow a little better than today. Like what you see? Please follow Wise & Well and/or subscribe to this newsletter. — Rob
