Walking Your Troubles Away
By: Max K. Erkiletian
Tags: Health, Mental Health, Aging, Exercise, Seniors

Walking Your Troubles Away

A regular stroll improves more than physical wellbeing

Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash

Most people know there are documented physical health benefits for seniors who take a daily walk. Often overlooked are the mental and emotional benefits.

Walking and/or other non-impact forms of exercise can help you live better, longer, and ward off mental decline, depression, and anxiety.

Walking and other exercises change the chemicals and cells in our bodies. Nerve cells communicate better in those who exercise regularly which leads to improvements in processing information. Researchers have found regular exercise stimulates brain cell growth and produces more protein in the brain which improves learning and memory function.

Take steps to improve emotional wellbeing

Walking daily has been shown to lower your risk of depression. Walking for Health is a non-profit in England that organizes walks for people seeking better health. It reports: “Physically active people have up to a 30 percent reduced risk of becoming depressed, and staying active helps those who are depressed recover.”

Walk to a better night’s sleep

About half of people over 65 have trouble falling asleep. Research indicates that walking can solve that problem.

In 2017 Morehouse University School of Medicine studied older adults with sleep problems. Roughly half of study participants experienced greater ease falling asleep and staying asleep after establishing a walking routine.

Physicians often recommend walking as a way for seniors to lose weight and boost physical and mental strength. Also, walking is easy to do and requires no special equipment.

Walk more, live longer

Taking 4,000 steps a day is considered a low level of physical activity. Often, doctors and trainers will recommend 10,000 steps a day as the optimum goal. However, a study last year that teamed researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that 8,000 steps a day were enough to reduce mortality risks in participants.

Those who walked 8,000 steps a day versus those who walked 4,000 steps had a 51 percent lower risk of dying over the next decade.

Those in the JAMA study who walked 12,000 steps daily had a 65 percent lower mortality risk than other participants.

Slow and steady wins the race

The same study found that the intensity or speed with which participants walked had no impact on their lifespans. So a casual stroll is just as effective as a power walk.

My dad was a testament to the slow and steady approach. He was diagnosed with Leukemia at age 70 and told he had about three years to live. Reading everything he could about cancer and consulting with a great oncologist, he developed a daily walking regimen. At first, it was a couple of blocks. His rambles grew to a couple of miles and never achieved great speed. He died thirteen years after being diagnosed, three months short of his eighty-fourth birthday.

No doubt genetics and dad’s positive attitude contributed to his longevity, but his daily walks also helped.

You are never too old

My father’s age illustrates another fact research bears out. It’s never too late to start an exercise regimen. A prime example is Fauja Singh. However, he did not walk. He ran.

After his wife and son died, Singh, in his 80s poured his grief into running. He built his endurance over a few years and ran his first marathon at 89. Continuing to build his speed and endurance, he recorded his best time — five hours and 50 minutes at 92. In 2004 and again in 2012, he was an Olympic torchbearer.

In 2011, Singh became the first person to run a marathon at age 100. By the way, Singh was not a great runner when he was a kid. Due to a birth defect, he did not even walk until he was five-years-old.