The Case for Walking - even just a little more than you do right now | Elemental

Headlines are quick hits from media outlets from Missouri and around the world. Follow the headline link for the full story. The source of this headline says:

Lee is an epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts who focuses on how physical activity can promote health and prevent chronic disease. Her latest study is actually about steps. Specifically: How many, or how few, an older person needs to take on a daily basis to reap significant health perks.

Along with several other studies out this year, the results reveal the incredible power of simply doing what humans have done since we stopped swinging from trees. And Lee’s results seem to debunk a myth so common it’s programmed into our lives.

“For many older people, or inactive persons, 10,000 steps/day can be a very daunting goal,” Lee says in an email. She’s got a prescription, based on the study results: "If you are inactive, just adding a very modest number of steps a day?—?say, an additional 2,000 steps extra?—?can be very beneficial for your health… you don’t need to get to 10,000." And, she adds, don't think of the steps as "exercise." Any ol' ambling will do. For example, she suggests, rather than finding the closest parking spot at the grocery store or at a concert, "park at the first spot you can" and hoof it over.

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The Case for Walking - even just a little more than you do right now | Elemental

MoBikeFed comment: One reason we are so obsessed with making Missouri communities more accessible to safe walking and bicycling--making sure every neighborhood has sidewalks, crosswalks, and safe places to walk and bike--is that we know that when you make neighborhoods more friendly for walking and bicycling, people do it more.

Not necessarily more, as in running marathons. But they're more likely to make walking or biking a regular part of their daily life--walking down to the store, or even just down the street to visit a neighbor or pick up the mail.

Those little bits of daily walking really add up to make a difference.

But hardly anyone will walk if it isn't safe to do so--no sidewalks, no crosswalks.