9 Ways Walking Benefits Your Health with Facts from Doctors

Science claims that walking is one of the easiest and most effective ways to keep your joints, heart, and brain healthy. Every step you make benefits you more than you think. Regular walking is suitable for all body parts – from the brain to the ankles. And the best part is that you don’t have to walk around your neighborhood for an hour to improve your health and feel better mentally and physically. Indeed, a short ten-minute daily walk can significantly benefit your well-being. In case you need the motivation to lace up your sneakers and start walking, I’ve listed the biggest and best doctor’s studies on the health benefits of walking for you.

Reducing the Risk of Heart Diseases

Shirley Rietdyk, Ph.D., professor of health and kinesiology at Purdue University, reminds us that the heart is a muscle, and the best way to strengthen this muscle is to work out and live an active lifestyle. That’s why we can find many studies on the potential benefits of physical activities, and walking in particular, for heart health. One study involved more than 80,000 postmenopausal women. The results showed that women who walked the most had an 11% lower risk of high blood pressure than those who walked less. Interestingly, women who walked faster had a 21% lower risk of high blood pressure than those who walked slower. People don’t have to walk huge marathon distances to benefit from walking. Joaquin W. Gonzalez, Ph.D. assistant professor of kinesiology at Texas Tech University, says that increasing daily steps by 1,000 people reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease and death by 5 to 20 percent.

Blood Sugar Level Stabilization

Walking can improve glucose regulation and lower 24-hour blood sugar levels. One study at George Washington University revealed that people who walked for just 15 minutes after each meal experienced lower blood sugar levels than those who walked for 45 minutes consecutively. Strange enough, isn’t it? The reason is that walking simultaneously stimulates several areas of the body. When all of the tissues are active (neurons, heart, and muscles), the blood vessels that supply each tissue with nutrients expand, resulting in increased blood flow. This process gives dilated arteries an incentive to deliver glucose to the brain, heart, and muscles for use as fuel. That’s why walking, even for short periods (for example, for two minutes every 20 minutes), can help the body lower blood sugar levels after a meal. Stable blood sugar levels can help prevent diabetes and curb cravings for sweets.

Increased Lifespan

Long-term studies prove that people who walk regularly (five or more days a week) live for 4 years longer than their sedentary counterparts. Likewise, a recent survey of American women found that as few as 4,400 steps a day reduced their mortality risk. Shirley Rietdyk connects it to the fact that physical activity strains the heart, respiratory system, brain, muscles, and bones. Unlike cars, our bodies benefit from movement, which breaks down due to extended use.

Better Sleep

Walking significantly improves sleep quality, even if you do it at the end of the day. According to studies, people who have taken up the habit of walking regularly in the afternoon or evening have noticed that they sleep better than those who don’t walk. Rietdyk believes that getting enough sleep is the motivation for walking, a kind of short-term benefit, meaning that you will feel better when you are done exercising. Then you will sleep better at night, which means that the next day you will be in a better mood and more likely to exercise again.

Burning Calories

Walking, just like other types of physical activity, can burn calories. Some studies show that walking for 150 minutes a week can help reduce belly fat. If you don’t have much time to walk, try incorporating high-intensity intervals into your walking routine: warm up for a few minutes and alternate periods of brisk walking with periods of faster walking to increase the amount of burned calories. You can also use walking poles to train your arms while walking. One study showed that you could burn 20% more calories this way. In addition, you will boost upper-body strength and lower-body flexibility. But it is worth consulting a physical therapist before buying such equipment.

Increasing Brain Performance

Joaquin U. Gonzales pointed out that recent studies have demonstrated how regular walking increases brain size in older people, improves cognitive abilities, and helps treat mental illnesses such as depression. Meanwhile, Stanford University research showed that walking could even increase creativity by as much as 60%. One of the theories suggests that any exercise increases blood flow to the brain and helps it function better.

Maintaining Mobility

Quality of life is more important to a person than its length, so it’s worth noting that walking significantly increases the life span of older people without the use of assistive devices or disabilities. But even if you already have mobility problems, walking is more likely to prevent them from worsening. For example, according to a Northwestern University study, people with osteoarthritis of the knees, ankles, feet, or hips who exercised 60 minutes of brisk walking each week had a lower risk of unemployment due to disability.

Immune System Support

During the pandemic, people became more aware of how vital a solid immune system is. Walking and moderate-intensity exercises strengthen our body’s immune cells to destroy pathogens. Consequently, people who prefer to walk regularly have a lower risk of becoming severely ill with infectious diseases and spend less time in the hospital if they get sick.

Improving Balance

We usually take balance for granted, but with age, it plays an essential role in preventing falls. Walking is a great way to maintain your balance. Shirley Rietdyk explains that during a walk, a human receives sensory information from the inner ear, muscles, sensory receptors, vision, and joints about where they are regarding the space and how they should respond to that condition.