Walking for Health - The Holistic Love

Lower Blood Sugar.

The American Diabetes Association encourages people with Diabetes to walk to lower blood sugar levels and overall to decrease your risk of getting diabetes. Exercise is natural insulin. So for people with diabetes, walking is so beneficial. After consuming a meal, you can go for a walk! It doesn’t matter whether you have been active in the past or not, the most important thing is to start now! For yourself and for your health! You can start slowly, by starting with 5-10 minutes of walking. Then add 5 minutes more each week so you can eventually get to 30 minutes of walking a day. If you want to really get into walking for exercise, you can try to reach up to 45 minutes or 1 hour each day! It’s really up to you on how much you really want to do. These light activities are great for people living with Diabetes and anyone who wants to keep their health in check! For those who have diabetes, you can check in with your Doctor to get their support. If you’re someone who sits at a desk all day, try to get up twice every hour and take a little stroll around your space. You can add reminders in your phone to remind you to do so, so you don’t forget! Just make it fun, get outside and see everything around you! Go on a walking adventure!

Mental Health.

We really don’t need to join the gym or involve ourselves in rigorous workout in order to lift our mood. We can just simply….walk. For everyone, going for a walk outside can help us manage our depression, stress and anxiety. you can do it anytime, even right now to protect our brain from depression, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease. The effects of exercise on the brain is better mood, better attention function and better energy. Severe anxiety can lead to more anxiety, and can be worse when not moving or exhausting our muscles. So you need to move your body to ease feelings of anxiety. Going for a walk may help distract your thoughts or at least put things into perspective. While walking, you may process (new) information around you including smells. This helps your mind and may decrease anxiety. Some studies have compared walking to an alternative to medications and pharmaceutical drugs. Walking may not control or prevent all of your anxiety, but it can make a great deal of a difference.

Prevent Heart Disease

According to a study by researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, runners and walkers had comparable reductions in the risk of developing hypertension, high blood cholesterol, diabetes, and heart disease. You may have to spend more time walking than you would be running to gain those benefits, but it is so worth it! Another study published in the Journal of “Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology,” believe walking and running reduced the risk of hypertension, high cholesterol levels, coronary artery disease, and diabetes as well. Jennifer Haythe, MD and assistant professor of Cardiology Medicine at Columbia University says, “One thing that I try to do with my friends is raise awareness, because I’m 43 and it’s really not on people’s minds at this age- but it’s the leading cause of death for women! Heart disease, you think of as old, you think of as men that are lazy and smoke and eat fatty food, and that’s just not totally true.”

Improve Circulation

“Walking is one of the best exercises you can do,” states Dr. Sam Robbins, who is educated in anti-aging, hormones, nutrition and exercise,” and almost anyone can do it, anywhere, anytime of the day and it doesn’t cost you a thing.” According to Dr. Robbins, it is the best exercise for improving circulation, especially to the legs. He advises that if you experience pain, or have trouble walking, even 3 minutes is a good start. Just work on walking a little bit every single day.

Some Warning Signs that you may experience if you happen to have circulation problems include:

Frequent pain and cramping in the legs
Tingling or numbness in your feet
Thickened toenails
Varicose or “spider” veins.

Circulation is so important because you have to pump the blood up to your heart against gravity.

If you are sedentary for prolonged periods of time, your circulation can gather in your veins and around your ankles which can lead to pain in the lower legs. The good news is, you can improve blood flow from your legs to your heart, helping to prevent blood clots and leg pain by just walking regularly.

Improve Lung Function

Exercise diminishes shortness of breath, risk of pneumonia, bronchitis, and other deteriorations brought on by age and sedentary lifestyle. In a WebMD slideshow article, 10 Smart Exercises for people with COPD, says that anyone with COPD can exercise. If it seems difficult, just a add a little more each day. Even a slow pace will do you good. Just like with everything, check with your doctor before starting any new exercise program. According to New Life Outlook COPD, it says that breathing issues can make exercise uncomfortable, though a low impact activity such as walking with COPD is one of the best ways to maintain strength and energy. It also says that COPD is preventable and manageable and you just need to find your inner strength to fight. These goals can be motivation to get moving. Just make sure you have comfortable footwear- proper footwear plays a big role to prevent injuries and soreness. Also stretching is a very critical tool to warm up the joints and ligaments to maintain proper form and to also prevent injury. And if you use an inhaler, always continue to keep it on you.

Strengthens Bones

According to American Bone Health, walking may guard the strength of bones. Also, bone density may decrease more slowly in comparison to non-walkers. This light impact of exercise can help strenthen bones, protecting oneself from osteoporosis and fractures. Dougal Mackinnon, MD PhD, Physiatrist from Vallejo, Ca, in “Walk for Health” youtube walking documentary says, “Weight-bearing and walking helps women maintain calcium in their bones and maintains the strength of bones.” She adds, “That is especially important in older people where you can have easy fractures from a fall. A simple walking pattern can prevent that by 35-40%. Dr. Robert Wermers in “American Bone Health” website says, “Walking is a good option for weight-bearing exercise that offers benefits such as improved muscle strength and balance as well as decreased rate of bone loss.”

Improve Skin Texture

Walking is part of exercise. Celebrity trainer, Jess Schuring, says “regular exercise has tremendous regenerating effects on our ageing process and therefore on our skin as well” and “Studies prove that regardless of the age you start exercise, it will have almost immediate positive effects on our skin’s thickness and elasticity.” She also states, “Cardio training helps to flush toxins from the body…subsequently helping with regeneration of skin and cells.” And adds, “Cardio training is essential in keeping our skin healthy and glowing.” Exercise can also help maintain healthy levels of the stress-related hormone, cortisol. Elevated cortisol levels are linked to increased sebum production, which leads to more blemish breakouts. Also, since walking can help reduce body fat, it can diminish cellulite as well.

Weight loss

“It happened as if by magic,” says Nicky, a blogger of Healthy As You Can. In her blog post, ‘Can I Lose Weight Just By Walking,’ says she lost 50 lbs regularly walking and says it was almost painless. Walking is a great exercise for those who may not be a total fitness or gym fanatic. But it is something, like everything else, you have to stick to. And for those weight loss benefits, you need to walk a lot. The goal to really see improvement is walking 10,000 steps a day. That’s why using a smart watch or app on your phone is really useful in keeping track of your steps and progress. The 10,000 steps a day phenomenon became popular around the time of the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. A Japanese company developed a pedometer called “Manpo-kei,” which means 10,000 steps meter. The goal of achieving 10,000 steps sounded catchy, easy to remember, and above the average daily steps for most people. Walking is considered one of the easiest and safest ways to exercise. However, if you don’t currently exercise, suddenly walking to 10,000 steps a day can lead to injury. Thomas Hirai, an MD from San Jose, CA says, “It is helpful to increase the number of steps per day and stay as active as possible.” People who are overweight, elderly, or who have health issues should be particularly careful. You may want to gradually increase your steps. Hirai recommends people should slowly increase their steps, working towards 1,000 extra steps per day each week until they reach their goal. Exercise is necessary in order to lose weight and maintain a healthy body. The CDC stands by getting 150 minutes per week of moderate to intense exercise, which includes walking.

References:

Lower Blood Sugar

10 Full-Body Benefits of Walking, According to Doctors and Trainers (prevention.com)

See Your Doctor | ADA (diabetes.org)

Weekly Exercise Targets | ADA (diabetes.org)

Putting the Fun in Fitness | ADA (diabetes.org)

Mental Health

.Walking the walk for mental health – YouTube

How Walking Can Boost Your Mood and Reduce Stress (verywellfit.com)

Mental Health Benefits Of Walking | PsychPoint

Heart Health

Wellness Tip: Brisk Walking | Berkeley Wellness