“We already knew that being physically active reduces your risk of heart rhythm abnormalities and other types of heart disease,” says study author Jill Pell, MD, director of the Institute of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. “Walking slowly is still better for your health than spending all day sedentary, but this new study showed that walking more briskly provides additional protection.”
Heart-Rhythm Issues Are a Growing Health Risk
There are several types of arrhythmias, including:
- Tachycardia, or rapid heartbeat
- Bradycardia, or very slow heartbeat
- Atrial fibrillation (afib), an irregularity where the heart temporarily beats at 300 to 600 beats per minute, when the normal rate is between 60 and 100
Would Walking Faster Make a Difference?
Drawing on the large-scale UK Biobank database, the researchers identified more than 420,000 participants who had provided walking speed information through questionnaire responses. The participants were 55 years old on average, more than half (55 percent) were women, and most (97 percent) were white. Anyone with an arrhythmia at the start of the study was excluded.
Details on the amount of time spent walking, and at what pace, were available for nearly 82,000 people who used activity trackers.
Researchers defined walking paces as follows:
- Slow: Under 3 miles per hour
- Steady (average): 3 to 4 miles per hour
- Brisk: more than 4 miles per hour
Overall, 6.5 percent reported a slow walking pace, just over half had an average walking pace, and about 40 percent had a brisk walking pace.
During an average follow-up of 13 years, nearly 1 in 10 participants developed heart rhythm abnormalities.
Picking Up the Pace Had a Powerful Protective Effect on the Heart
The findings, published this week in the journal Heart, revealed that compared with a slow walking pace, a steady pace was tied to a 35 percent lower risk of all heart arrhythmias. For afib in particular, a steady speed was linked to a 38 percent lower risk.
At a brisk walking pace, the risk of any arrhythmia was 43 percent lower compared with a slow pace, and 46 percent lower specifically for afib.
“There are many cardiovascular benefits to brisk walking, such as helping maintain a good weight and blood pressure, and now we learn from this study, a lower risk of heart rhythm problems,” says Deepak Bhatt, MD, director of Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital and a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Icahn School of Medicine in New York City.
“The bottom line is that people are better off walking more, and while walking, it is even better to walk at a brisk pace as opposed to just sauntering along,” says Dr. Bhatt, who was not involved in this study.
Walking Faster Improves Health in Multiple Ways
In addition to decreasing irregular heartbeat risks, steady and brisk walking was also connected to other improvements in overall health compared with leisurely walking.
People who walked at a faster pace were less likely to have high cholesterol, high blood pressure and blood sugar, and weight gain.
Speedier walking appeared to protect against overall inflammation in the body, as measured by C-reactive protein (CRP), which the liver produces in response to inflammation.
“These are all things that make you more likely to develop arrhythmias,” says Pell.
Some Groups See Greater Benefits From Brisk Walking
The protective effects of steady and brisk walking were strongest in people who are:
- Female
- Under 60
- Living with high blood pressure,
- Living with two or more chronic health conditions
- Not living with obesity
Pell notes that further research is required to understand these findings, some of which seem counterintuitive. For example, it’s unclear why those who were not overweight or living with obesity appeared to have greater benefit from brisk walking.
Being overweight or having obesity raises the risk of heart disease in several ways, including by raising inflammation in the body, according to Bhatt.
“The fact that a faster walking pace is even more protective in women than men is great news,” says Pell.
Because this was an observational study based on self-reported data regarding walking, the authors acknowledge that the results are limited. Also, study participants did not reflect a broad spectrum of ethnic backgrounds and ages.
How to Get More Steps in Every Day
“Even a modest increase in walking pace can make a big difference in heart rhythm health — especially if you’re in a higher-risk group,” says John Higgins, MD, a cardiologist at UTHealth Houston who was not involved in the the research.
Dr. Higgins offers the following tips to get more walking into your life:
- Take stairs instead of elevators.
- Park farther away from your destinations.
- Walk during lunch breaks.
- Add weights to make muscles work harder.
- Walk up hills to increase intensity.
- Try walk-jog routines.
- Palpitations (fluttering, skipping beats)
- Fatigue
- Dizziness or lightheadedness
- Shortness of breath
- Chest discomfort
- Fainting (in some cases)
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