Hunt: walk to stop Britain grinding to a halt
Health Secretary warns of impact on NHS after walking levels fall by a third in three decades
BRITISH people are being urged to take to their feet after official data showed walking levels have fallen by more than a third in three decades.
Jeremy Hunt last night called on the public to make lifestyle changes to stop Britain from “grinding to a halt” after statistics showed that the average person walks less than half a mile a day.
The Health Secretary – who wears a fitness tracker to reach 10,000 steps daily – said small changes could help people dramatically boost their health.
He issued the call as data for England disclosed that the average person now walks 181 miles a year – less than half a mile a day. The total recorded in Department for Transport surveys has fallen by 63 miles since 1986, when people walked two thirds of a mile daily, with a sharp fall in the past decade. Mr Hunt told The Daily Telegraph: “It is a real concern to see this decline in activity levels when we know that relatively small improvements in lifestyle can have a dramatic effect in fending off long-term conditions like diabetes or dementia.
“Many people now track how many steps they take every day – but the best thing is simply to make walking a bigger part of your daily life,” he said. “If we can encourage more people to do this, and stop Britain from grinding to a halt, we will relieve some of the pressures the NHS is facing on the frontline.” Yes- terday a study published in The Lancet found that workers need to do an hour’s exercise, such as brisk walking, to counter the deadly impact of eight hours sitting in an office. A sedentary day at a desk without extra physical activity could increase the risk of premature mortality by up to 60 per cent, the research found.
Researchers urged office workers to take a five-minute break every hour to walk around, and break up long periods seated.
Steven Ward, executive director of UK Active, said: “Physical inactivity is the unseen killer creeping up on society, to the extent that the today’s children are the first generation to face shorter life spans than their parents.
“Britain needs to stop the rot by embedding physically activity in every aspect of our lives – at home, at work and at play – to make movement a habit from the cradle to the grave.”
He said there were plenty of ways to encourage adults and children to be more active. “Whether it’s walking an extra kilometre to catch a Pokémon or trying out an exercise class for the first time, there are lots of options to get moving,” he said. Dr Justin Varney, national lead for adult health and wellbeing, from Public Health England, said commuting trends meant many workers were spending ever longer sitting down.
“The longer this continues, the more people we’ll see hit by preventable diseases and the greater burden placed on the NHS,” he said.
The Lancet research backed schemes in which transport planners place bus stops further apart, so that those taking the bus had a longer walk at the start or end of their journey.