2023-12-02 08:53:38
by Cristina Marrone
The results of a meta-analysis suggest that walking at a speed of 4 kilometers per hour reduces the risk of diabetes by 9% and the benefits increase proportionally to the pace of the steps.
Walking is good for your health: it strengthens the immune system, improves ventilation capacity, curbs obesity, reduces joint pain and is good for your mood. But walking fast, i.e. at a pace of about four kilometers per hour, is linked to a significantly lower risk of type 2 diabetes, according to a new study published in British Journal of Sports Medicine which involved Iranian, British and Norwegian researchers. And the faster you walk, the lower your risk of diabetes. Scientists were able to calculate that every additional kilometer per hour traveled translates into a 9% reduction in risk. We know that taking a regular walk is associated with a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, but it’s not clear what the optimal pace might be to ward off the disease, researchers say. Understanding this would be very important from a prevention perspective.
Diabetes in the world
The global number of adults with type 2 diabetes is currently 537 million, but it is expected that it will reach 783 million by 2045, therefore simple and economical physical activity, which among other things also brings with it numerous other benefits for social, mental and physical health, it could be a simple solution to ward off the disease.
Data analysis
The scientists who carried out a meta-analysis analyzed studies on the topic that followed volunteers for a long period of time and selected a dozen of them suitable for research, all published between 1999 and 2022, with monitoring periods between three and the 11 years. In total, over 500 thousand adults from the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom were involved. Analysis of the pooled data showed that walking at a speed of 3 to 5 kilometers per hour was associated with a 15% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to walking at a speed of less than 3 kilometers per hour. Now. Similarly, walking at a brisk pace, i.e. 5-6 kilometers per hour was associated with a reduced risk of about 24% compared to a gentle pace. The investigation highlighted that walking quickly, and in any case at a pace greater than 6 kilometers per hour, is correlated with a reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes of approximately 39% which, translated into absolute numbers, means 2.24 cases of type 2 diabetes per 100 people. The findings suggest that every additional kilometer per hour in walking speed is associated with a 9% lower risk of diabetes, with a minimum threshold of 4 kilometers per hour equal to 87 steps per minute for men and 100 steps per minute for women. .
And limits
The researchers recognize that there are significant biases in the studies mostly related to incomplete adjustments for potentially influential factors and the way walking speed was interpreted. Another factor to consider is reverse causality whereby participants with a higher walking speed may be more likely to be physically active and have better cardiorespiratory fitness, greater muscle mass, and better overall health.
Because walking at a brisk pace is good for you
The results must therefore be interpreted in light of these limitations, warn the researchers themselves, however there are plausible explanations as to why fast walking is protective for diabetes. Walking speed is in fact an important indicator of general health and a key indicator of functional capacity: a greater walking speed is associated with better cardiorespiratory fitness and muscle strength, both linked to the risk of diabetes; furthermore, brisk walking is good for weight loss, which helps improve insulin sensitivity. This is not the first time that walking pace has been linked to important health benefits. A pair of works published in September 2022 concluded that walking speed (from 8 to 112 steps per minute) seems even more crucial than the number of steps to limit the risks of dementia, cardiovascular diseases, tumors.
Although strategies to increase walking time are useful – the authors conclude – walking speed cannot be overlooked which, regardless of the time spent walking, can be associated with a lower risk of diabetes 2. Not everyone can walk quickly but being physically active leads to important health benefits, and this also applies to slow walkers. However, those who walk faster gain some additional advantages.
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December 2, 2023 (changed December 2, 2023 | 07:53)
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