This is Flap two days ago on a 20 mile Run/Walk/Run from Santa Monica to Marina Del Rey/ Playa Del Rey and back again two days ago
To Predict Seniors’ Life Spans, Check Their Walking Speeds?
When doctors want a clue to which seniors might have many years still ahead of them—and who might be in trouble—it seems one of the best pieces of evidence could be simply how fast the person walks.Well, DUH.
That’s the conclusion of a study by University of Pittsburgh scientists published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The work reviewed the results of nine other studies over the years that included more than 34,000 people aged 65 or older. When they tallied the total results, the numbers jumped off the page:
Only 19 percent of the slowest walking 75-year-old men lived for 10 more years compared to 87 percent of the fastest walking ones. Only 35 percent of the slowest walking 75-year-old women made it to their 85th birthday compared to 91 percent of the fastest walkers. [Boston Globe]
And, although I am not 65 yet and there has been no scientific evidence that running or walking faster will add years to your life (the converse), I will take my chances with my physical activity and running training.
