Brisk walking is more than just a regular workout for weight loss. The simple exercise every morning can bring unexpected benefits for your longevity.
A new research has found a specific health benefit of brisk walking for heart health, which can be life-saving for many. Walking is known to ward off risk factors of several chronic diseases and researchers of the latest study say a faster pace can lower risk of a range of heart rhythm problems.
According to the NHS, heart rhythm problems occur when there’s a fault with the electrical system that makes your heart beat. This can be the result of a heart rhythm condition, such as atrial fibrillation or supraventricular tachycardia (SVT). Heart rhythm issues can also be triggered by high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, heart valve disease, heart attack, or Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome.
Published in BMJ Heart, the researchers looked at the walking speeds of nearly 420,925 participants from the UK Biobank. 81,956 out of these could provide more details about the amount of time they spent walking at different paces. These participants were tracked for around 13 years, and it was found that people who walked at a brisk pace had a 35-43% lower risk of heart rhythm abnormalities compared with those walked slowly.
The slow pace was defined as less than 3mph, an average pace as 3–4mph, and a brisk pace as more than 4mph.
Brisk walkers also had lower risks of atrial fibrillation and other cardiac arrhythmias.