A regular walking workout can benefit your overall health. Find out why fitness walking is so important and how you can get started. If you’re like most people, you walk just under three miles every day in the course of your normal activities. Now it’s time to get a little more purposeful. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American College of Sports Medicine, and the Surgeon General all agree that at least 30 minutes of brisk physical exercise is good for your health, and walking is one of the easiest forms of exercise to get.
Some of the many benefits of a regular walking workout include:
Cardiovascular health. Fitness walking strengthens your heart, improves your circulation, and lowers your blood pressure. A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine evaluated 73,743 postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study and found that women who walked briskly 2.5 hours every week reduced their chance of heart disease by 30 percent.Bone health. As a weight-bearing exercise, walking can stop some of the bone loss of osteoporosis and may slow down arthritis.Weight loss. A regular walking workout burns calories. If you walk 4 miles four times a week, you can walk off about a half-pound of fat every month. Weight loss combined with a healthy diet can also decrease your risk of type 2 diabetes.Mental health. Studies show that fitness walking reduces stress and improves your overall sense of emotional well-being. A regular walking workout can help you enjoy deeper, more restful sleep, which may decrease your risk for anxiety and depression. How to Start Your Walking Workout
The speed and distance of your walking workout are not as important as the time you spend walking at a brisk pace. If you have any health issues talk to your doctor first and find out what is a safe pace for you. Start gradually and walk only as far and as long as is comfortable. Follow these fitness walking guidelines:
Work up to at least 30 minutes of brisk walking a day.
Warm up by walking at your normal pace for about 5 minutes and then pick up the pace for about 15 minutes.
While you walk, swing your arms and maintain good posture.
Take long strides, but don't strain yourself.
Slow down at the end of your walk and do some gentle stretching.
Every week you should try to add about 5 more minutes to the brisk part of your walking workout until you can get it to over 30 minutes.
By Chris Iliades, MD
Medically reviewed by Christine Wilmsen Craig, MD
Showing posts with label seniors walking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seniors walking. Show all posts
Friday, February 11, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Warding Off Muscle Cramps As We Age
If you're over 65, you probably know what a "charley horse" is. You may have gotten them during strenuous exercise as a younger person. But in older age, muscle cramps can be unlike any you've ever had before. That's because like so many other things in our bodies, our muscles and nerves wear out and function less effectively as we age.
"A cramp is a sudden painful contraction of a muscle that becomes rock hard," says Dr. Robert Miller, a neurologist who specializes in muscle cramps at the California Pacific Medical Center and teaches at University of California, San Francisco. "The muscle goes into a spasm and squeezes all the little nerve endings inside the muscle, and creates pain, and definitely ... gets your attention until you do something about it."
Uncontrollable Muscle Spasms
For Ken Holladay, 71, his muscle cramps started off mild and irregular. At first, he got them once every few weeks, but then they started to get more frequent. Eventually, they occurred every single night — often twice, between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. It was a painful version of a charley horse, only it was in his feet and toes: "The big toe was at 90 degrees to the bottom of the foot; put your foot on the floor, and this big toe would be pointing straight up toward the ceiling; and I don't believe you can voluntarily pull a big toe that high."
Keeping Your Feet Happy
But as it turns out, your muscles can, all on their own. Holladay says that one time his toe actually curled down, "and I leapt out of bed to try and get rid of the pain and landed on that toe and broke the toe, broke the bone underneath that big toe, broke the toenail off." It was terrible, he says.
And since the cramps typically occurred twice every night, it was impossible to get a good night's sleep or feel well-rested during the day. But that's not what drove Holladay to seek treatment. What really scared him, he says, was the possibility that, as he got older, he might become bedridden due to disease or injury. If that happened, Holladay says, he wouldn't be able to get out of bed and walk, stretch and flex his muscles. He would just have to lie there, in terrible pain.
It was too scary a thought.
Searching For Treatment
So, Holladay went searching for help and treatment. First his doctor had to determine whether the spasms were an indicator of any other muscle or nerve degenerative disease, like ALS. With that established, Holladay tried a number of potential treatments: acupuncture, and then prescription quinine, which has since been taken off the market as a treatment for muscle cramps due to concerns about side effects. Neither one worked.
Finally he drove over an hour to see Dr. Yuen So, director of the neurology clinic at Stanford University. As it turned out, So and colleagues had just finished an evidence-based review of treatments for muscle cramps. Unfortunately, they turned up little. There were hundreds of studies but no conclusive or compelling evidence that any particular treatment would work for all or even most patients.
Dr. Hans Katzberg headed the review. Katzberg says some treatments held promise, including a certain type of calcium channel blocker used to treat blood pressure, as well as Vitamin B complex. Even with them, however, results were not convincing. "We were surprised to find out how little is documented in the treatment of cramps," says So. "A lot we do in medicine is based on anecdotal experience, and in this case, a lot of the treatments we use fall into the unproven category."
For Holladay, So ended up prescribing an anti-seizure medication. The meds worked.
"After a week or two, no cramps. After a month or two, no cramps," Holladay says. It was miraculous, he says, and he can't speak highly enough of the neurology department at Stanford or of Dr. So.
Keeping Spasms At Bay
Even though things eventually worked out for Holladay, that's not the case for many patients who suffer severe nighttime muscle cramps. According to UCSF neurologist Miller, older people are at greater risk for cramps simply because of their age. Nerves control muscles, and nerves just wear out.
"As we age, there are changes in both nerves and muscles. Muscles get more weak and small. And nerves undergo some decay, with the tissue becoming thin. And when that happens, the connections that the nerves make to the muscle become less secure."
And cramps occur at the place where nerves meet muscle, says Miller. When the brain sends the signal for the muscle to move, "the signal does have to cross through tiny nerve twigs, or nerve terminals." Excessive signaling, excessive irritability — which may result from thinning and weakened nerves — seems to be the generator for cramping.
At 68, Miller is a candidate for cramps himself. But he keeps them at bay, he says, by eating a banana a day and drinking lots of water. The banana provides electrolytes with its magnesium, potassium and calcium. The water provides fluid. Fluid and electrolytes, says Miller, while not proved to decrease muscle cramps, do seem to help by keeping nerve pathways healthy.
And Miller also benefits from stretching, doing weekly yoga and daily bike riding. Every day, he traverses San Francisco's hills for a total of two hours back and forth to work, "stretching my calf muscles and hamstring muscles by standing up on the pedals and stretching first one and then the other." Stretching is a tried-and-true cure for muscle cramps by pretty much any sufferer's description, says Miller, despite the lack of scientific evidence.
"A cramp is a sudden painful contraction of a muscle that becomes rock hard," says Dr. Robert Miller, a neurologist who specializes in muscle cramps at the California Pacific Medical Center and teaches at University of California, San Francisco. "The muscle goes into a spasm and squeezes all the little nerve endings inside the muscle, and creates pain, and definitely ... gets your attention until you do something about it."
Uncontrollable Muscle Spasms
For Ken Holladay, 71, his muscle cramps started off mild and irregular. At first, he got them once every few weeks, but then they started to get more frequent. Eventually, they occurred every single night — often twice, between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. It was a painful version of a charley horse, only it was in his feet and toes: "The big toe was at 90 degrees to the bottom of the foot; put your foot on the floor, and this big toe would be pointing straight up toward the ceiling; and I don't believe you can voluntarily pull a big toe that high."
Keeping Your Feet Happy
But as it turns out, your muscles can, all on their own. Holladay says that one time his toe actually curled down, "and I leapt out of bed to try and get rid of the pain and landed on that toe and broke the toe, broke the bone underneath that big toe, broke the toenail off." It was terrible, he says.
And since the cramps typically occurred twice every night, it was impossible to get a good night's sleep or feel well-rested during the day. But that's not what drove Holladay to seek treatment. What really scared him, he says, was the possibility that, as he got older, he might become bedridden due to disease or injury. If that happened, Holladay says, he wouldn't be able to get out of bed and walk, stretch and flex his muscles. He would just have to lie there, in terrible pain.
It was too scary a thought.
Searching For Treatment
So, Holladay went searching for help and treatment. First his doctor had to determine whether the spasms were an indicator of any other muscle or nerve degenerative disease, like ALS. With that established, Holladay tried a number of potential treatments: acupuncture, and then prescription quinine, which has since been taken off the market as a treatment for muscle cramps due to concerns about side effects. Neither one worked.
Finally he drove over an hour to see Dr. Yuen So, director of the neurology clinic at Stanford University. As it turned out, So and colleagues had just finished an evidence-based review of treatments for muscle cramps. Unfortunately, they turned up little. There were hundreds of studies but no conclusive or compelling evidence that any particular treatment would work for all or even most patients.
Dr. Hans Katzberg headed the review. Katzberg says some treatments held promise, including a certain type of calcium channel blocker used to treat blood pressure, as well as Vitamin B complex. Even with them, however, results were not convincing. "We were surprised to find out how little is documented in the treatment of cramps," says So. "A lot we do in medicine is based on anecdotal experience, and in this case, a lot of the treatments we use fall into the unproven category."
For Holladay, So ended up prescribing an anti-seizure medication. The meds worked.
"After a week or two, no cramps. After a month or two, no cramps," Holladay says. It was miraculous, he says, and he can't speak highly enough of the neurology department at Stanford or of Dr. So.
Keeping Spasms At Bay
Even though things eventually worked out for Holladay, that's not the case for many patients who suffer severe nighttime muscle cramps. According to UCSF neurologist Miller, older people are at greater risk for cramps simply because of their age. Nerves control muscles, and nerves just wear out.
"As we age, there are changes in both nerves and muscles. Muscles get more weak and small. And nerves undergo some decay, with the tissue becoming thin. And when that happens, the connections that the nerves make to the muscle become less secure."
And cramps occur at the place where nerves meet muscle, says Miller. When the brain sends the signal for the muscle to move, "the signal does have to cross through tiny nerve twigs, or nerve terminals." Excessive signaling, excessive irritability — which may result from thinning and weakened nerves — seems to be the generator for cramping.
At 68, Miller is a candidate for cramps himself. But he keeps them at bay, he says, by eating a banana a day and drinking lots of water. The banana provides electrolytes with its magnesium, potassium and calcium. The water provides fluid. Fluid and electrolytes, says Miller, while not proved to decrease muscle cramps, do seem to help by keeping nerve pathways healthy.
And Miller also benefits from stretching, doing weekly yoga and daily bike riding. Every day, he traverses San Francisco's hills for a total of two hours back and forth to work, "stretching my calf muscles and hamstring muscles by standing up on the pedals and stretching first one and then the other." Stretching is a tried-and-true cure for muscle cramps by pretty much any sufferer's description, says Miller, despite the lack of scientific evidence.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Seniors' Walking Speed May Predict Life Expectancy
Gait speed correlated with expected years of life remaining to people aged 65 years and older, with increased walking speed predicting longer life expectancy....
Dr. Stephanie Studenski of the division of geriatric medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, and her associates, stated that, for both sexes and at any age older than 65 years, a gait speed of 0.8 meters per second correlated with the median life expectancy for a person's age and sex. Faster walking speeds consistently correlated with extended survival, they said.
They assessed the relationship between gait speed and survival in a pooled analysis using data from nine cohort studies of community-dwelling adults. Each study included at least 400 people, gait speed data at baseline, and follow-up for at least 5 years. All of the studies measured gait speed by having subjects walk at their usual pace from a standing start for 6-8 feet indoors.
There were 34,485 study subjects, including "substantial" numbers of African American and Hispanic patients, as well as 1,765 who were older than 85 years. Follow-up ranged from 6 to 21 years, with a median of 14 years. Gait speed ranged widely, from less than 0.4 meters per second (in 1,247 people) to more than 1.4 meters per second (in 1,491 people). There were 17,528 deaths during follow-up.
Predicted years of life remaining correlated with gait speed for patients of both sexes and all ages.
A walking speed of approximately 0.8 meters per second was associated with the predicted median life expectancy for a subject's age and sex. Gait speeds faster than that rate predicted longer-than-average life expectancy, while slower gait speeds predicted shorter-than-average life expectancy. Gait speeds of 1.2 meters per second and faster predicted "exceptional" life expectancy, the investigators said
Gait speed "was especially informative after age 75 years" in patients who had no, or only minor, functional limitations. It may be less helpful in predicting life expectancy for patients who already report functional impairments and dependency on others for performing the activities of daily living, the investigators noted.
The data allowed Dr. Studenski and her colleagues to calculate survival estimates for a broad range of gait speeds, and to calculate absolute rates and median years of survival. "Compared with prior studies that were too small to assess potential effect modification by age, sex, race/ethnicity, and other subgroups, we were able to assess multiple subgroup effects with substantial power," the researchers said.
"Because gait speed can be assessed by nonprofessional staff using a 4-meter walkway and a stopwatch, it is relatively simple to measure compared with many medical assessments," they added.
In practice, gait speed can be used to identify elderly patients with a high probability of living 5-10 more years, who can then be targeted for preventive interventions that require a long time before benefits are realized. It can also identify patients at increased risk for early mortality, who can then be targeted for interventions to maximize health and survival, the researchers explained.
If gait speed is tracked over time, it can serve as an indicator that new health problems have arisen. It can also be helpful in stratifying risks from surgery or chemotherapy, the investigators said.
Dr. Stephanie Studenski of the division of geriatric medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, and her associates, stated that, for both sexes and at any age older than 65 years, a gait speed of 0.8 meters per second correlated with the median life expectancy for a person's age and sex. Faster walking speeds consistently correlated with extended survival, they said.
They assessed the relationship between gait speed and survival in a pooled analysis using data from nine cohort studies of community-dwelling adults. Each study included at least 400 people, gait speed data at baseline, and follow-up for at least 5 years. All of the studies measured gait speed by having subjects walk at their usual pace from a standing start for 6-8 feet indoors.
There were 34,485 study subjects, including "substantial" numbers of African American and Hispanic patients, as well as 1,765 who were older than 85 years. Follow-up ranged from 6 to 21 years, with a median of 14 years. Gait speed ranged widely, from less than 0.4 meters per second (in 1,247 people) to more than 1.4 meters per second (in 1,491 people). There were 17,528 deaths during follow-up.
Predicted years of life remaining correlated with gait speed for patients of both sexes and all ages.
A walking speed of approximately 0.8 meters per second was associated with the predicted median life expectancy for a subject's age and sex. Gait speeds faster than that rate predicted longer-than-average life expectancy, while slower gait speeds predicted shorter-than-average life expectancy. Gait speeds of 1.2 meters per second and faster predicted "exceptional" life expectancy, the investigators said
Gait speed "was especially informative after age 75 years" in patients who had no, or only minor, functional limitations. It may be less helpful in predicting life expectancy for patients who already report functional impairments and dependency on others for performing the activities of daily living, the investigators noted.
The data allowed Dr. Studenski and her colleagues to calculate survival estimates for a broad range of gait speeds, and to calculate absolute rates and median years of survival. "Compared with prior studies that were too small to assess potential effect modification by age, sex, race/ethnicity, and other subgroups, we were able to assess multiple subgroup effects with substantial power," the researchers said.
"Because gait speed can be assessed by nonprofessional staff using a 4-meter walkway and a stopwatch, it is relatively simple to measure compared with many medical assessments," they added.
In practice, gait speed can be used to identify elderly patients with a high probability of living 5-10 more years, who can then be targeted for preventive interventions that require a long time before benefits are realized. It can also identify patients at increased risk for early mortality, who can then be targeted for interventions to maximize health and survival, the researchers explained.
If gait speed is tracked over time, it can serve as an indicator that new health problems have arisen. It can also be helpful in stratifying risks from surgery or chemotherapy, the investigators said.
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