Type 2 Diabetes and Could Regular Brisk Walking Lower the Risk?
What is type 2 diabetes?
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Type 2 diabetes is a common condition that causes the level of sugar (glucose) in the blood to become too high.
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It can cause symptoms like excessive thirst, needing to pee a lot and tiredness. It can also increase your risk of getting serious problems with your eyes, heart and nerves.
- It's a lifelong condition that can affect your everyday life. You may need to change your diet, take medicines and have regular check-ups.
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It's caused by problems with a chemical in the body (hormone) called insulin. It's often linked to being overweight or inactive, or having a family history of type 2 diabetes.
How common is type 2 diabetes?
According to the International Diabetes Federation,there are about five hundred and thirty seven million adults with diabetes worldwide - and some ninety percent of these have type 2.
What have researchers found?
Researchers have found that those who walked faster than 1.86 miles per hour were less likely to develop type 2 diabetes.
While physical activity is associated with a lower risk of developing the condition in the first place. researchers from Imperial College, London, the University of Medical Sciences in Iran and Oslo New University College in Norway set out to ascertain the optimal walking speed needed to stave off or prevent diabetes type 2.
The team from these three institutions looked at ten studies published between 1999 and 2022 which included follow up periods of between three and eleven years.
In total, over five hundred thousand adult patients were included - from the UK, Japan and the USA.
The team found that walking between 1.86 and 3.1 miles per hour reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes by fifteen percent when compared with walking at a slower rate.
The risk reduced further with a faster pace - namely a fairly brisk walk of between 3.1 and 3.72 miles per hour - by twenty four percent.
What conclusion did the researchers come to?
They pointed out that while current strategies to increase total walking time are beneficial, it may also be reasonable to encourage people to walk at faster speeds to further increase the health benefits of walking.
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Written by Jane Chitty
Jane writes for Healing Natural Oils, a producer and retailer of high-quality, all-natural treatments for a variety of conditions as well as a range of beauty products. Apart from writing about those various conditions, she also covers general health, environmental and other subjects of interest. She has lived in Kenya as well as Cape Town, South Africa and spent time in San Diego, USA. She now lives in Somerset, England with regular visits from her far-flung children and grandchildren. She is a keen gardener and enjoys growing fresh fruit and vegetables with her husband on their joint allotment. As a result, there is something available to use in the kitchen virtually all year round. Her regular posts can be found on our blog.