The Link Between Walking Pace and Type 2 Diabetes: What You Need to Know

No one knows how fast you have to walk to avoid getting sick. But the faster you walk, the smaller the risk of diabetes. This picture emerges when comparing studies into the link between walking pace and type 2 diabetes.

It is known that exercise is good for preventing chronic diseases. More than a million people in the Netherlands have type 2 diabetes and not exercising is an important risk factor. But the eternal question is: how often and how intensively is exercise optimal? For an article this week in the British Journal of Sports Medicine appeared, researchers compared ten cohort studies. They conclude that a speed of at least 6.4 kilometers per hour has a 39 percent lower risk of diabetes 2 compared to strolling. They call that brisk/striding walking, something that in Dutch could be called firmly stepping through. Every additional kilometer per hour reduces the risk by another 9 percent.

Part of the explanation lies in circular reasoning: healthy people can walk faster. All kinds of other things associated with type 2 diabetes also look better: heart-lung condition, muscle strength and weight, for example. The question remains: are these people healthy because they walk briskly or can they walk briskly because they are healthy?

The Dutch moving advice is simple: exercise is good, more exercise is better. 150 minutes of moderately intensive exercise per week is the minimum. Walking five kilometers per hour is fast enough for moderate/intense exercise. Not even half of the Dutch people achieve that. And although the evidence is mounting that more exercise is better, the biggest benefit is between no exercise and a little exercise.

For those who simply find walking boring: British research showed this with the inefficient walk from Monty Pythons Ministry of Silly Walks Health benefits can also be achieved compared to normal walking. It is not the number of kilometers per hour, but the extra energy required for the Teabag-style run that provides an advantage.

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2023-11-29 19:51:48
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