This article was originally written by Stephen Beech for SWNS — the U.K.’s largest independent news agency, providing globally relevant original, verified, and engaging content to the world’s leading media outlets.
The next time you’re out for your daily walk, add a little extra pep in your step — your heart will thank you. A U.K. study found that brisk walking may lower the risk of potentially deadly heart rhythm issues like atrial fibrillation, tachycardia, and bradycardia, and is particularly beneficial for women and people under the age of 60. And according to the research, the ideal speed for gleaning these benefits is 4 mph or over.
This study “is the first to explore the pathways underpinning the association between walking pace and arrhythmias, and to provide evidence that metabolic and inflammatory factors may have a role. Walking faster decreased the risk of obesity and inflammation, which, in turn, reduced the risk of arrhythmia,” said Jill Pell, a University of Glasgow professor who led the research.
The findings, published online by the journal BMJ Heart, were strongest in women, people under 60, those who weren’t obese, and those with preexisting long-term conditions. The results were independent of known cardiovascular risk factors.
Heart rhythm abnormalities, or arrhythmias, are common with atrial fibrillation, a disorder that causes an irregular heartbeat. Over the last 30 years, they’ve doubled to reach nearly 60 million cases worldwide in 2019. Abnormalities like these are associated with heightened risks of a potentially fatal heart attack or stroke.
Yet while walking pace is associated with lower risks of cardiovascular disease and death, few previous studies had evaluated its potential impact on heart rhythm abnormalities.
So the research team looked at the impact of different walking speeds while exploring the potential role of risk factors like age, obesity, smoking, and alcohol intake. To do so, they analyzed data from questionnaires gathered from 420,925 U.K. participants with an average age of 55, a pool made up of 55% women. The amount of time spent walking at different paces, garnered from activity tracker readings, was available for 81,956 of them.
The researchers defined a slow pace as walking at less than 3 mph, a steady or average pace as 3-4 mph, and a brisk pace as more than 4 mph. The findings? Just over 6.5% reported a slow walking pace, 53% shared an average walking pace, and 41% a brisk walking pace. During an average tracking period of 13 years, 36,574 of the participants (9%) developed heart rhythm abnormalities, with atrial fibrillation the most common.
Participants reporting a faster walking pace were more likely to be men, tended to live in less deprived areas, and had healthier lifestyles. They also had smaller waists, weighed less, had better grip strength, and showed lower levels of metabolic risk factors, including blood fats and fasting glucose, as well as lower levels of inflammatory activity, and fewer long-term conditions.
After accounting for potentially influential background demographic and lifestyle factors, an average or brisk walking pace was associated with “significantly lower” risks of all heart rhythm abnormalities — at 35% and 43%, respectively — compared with a slow walking pace.
Average and brisk walking speeds were also associated with lower risks of atrial fibrillation (38% and 46%, respectively); and other cardiac arrhythmias (21% and 39%, respectively) compared with those who reported a slow pace.
The researchers said that while the amount of time spent walking at a slow pace wasn’t linked to the risk of developing heart rhythm abnormalities, more time spent walking at an average or brisk pace was associated with a 27% lower risk. Overall, just over a third (36%) of the association between walking pace and all heart rhythm abnormalities was influenced by metabolic and inflammatory factors.
Said Pell: “This finding is biologically plausible because cumulative epidemiological studies have shown that walking pace is inversely associated with metabolic factors, such as obesity, fasting glucose, diabetes, and high blood pressure which, in turn, are associated with the risk of arrhythmias.”
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