Brisk walkers reap benefits and slow down ageing process

PICKING up the pace and walking faster can slow down ageing, a study has found.

Academics say that by the time a fast walker reaches midlife their body will be the equivalent of 16 years younger than that of a slow walker.

Scientists studied more than more than 400,000 British people, looking at their chromosomes and, more specifically, the end of the chromosomes called the telomere, which protects the genetic material from damage.

This section of DNA is a telltale sign of someone’s biological age as it shrinks over time. The longer a person’s telomere, the “younger” their body is.

Each time a cell divides, these telomeres become shorter until a point where they become so short that the cell can no longer divide. For the first study of its kind, the team looked at data from the UK Biobank. They compared genetic data with self-reported walking speeds and measurements of movement intensity from wearable activity tracking devices worn by participants.

The researchers found that fast walkers had improved health and were the equivalent of 16 years younger than slow walkers by the time they reached midlife.

Roughly half of the study participants described themselves as a steady walker, while 6.6 per cent said they were “plodders” and 41.1 per cent believed they were quick walkers.

“These findings support more intensive habitual movement, such as faster walking pace, as potentially important determinants of [biological age] and overall health status in humans,” the researchers from the University of Leicester wrote in their study published in Communications Biology.

The university’s researchers had previously shown that just 10 minutes of brisk walking a day was associated with a longer life, and that fast walkers can live for up to 20 years longer than slow ones.