Walking slow is a sign of ageing fast (and bad teeth), according to an eye-opening new study.
The New Zealand research involved recording the pace of walking among a group of more than 900 participants aged in their 40s.
The study, published in JAMA Network Open, showed those who walked slower had brains and bodies that showed signs of “accelerated ageing”.
Scientists found their lungs, teeth and immune systems were also weaker than those of the faster walkers, because of decreased blood flows.
Participants were studied for their whole lives, including the use of MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans to examine their brain activity.
The researchers believe walking pace could even be used to gauge the risk of brain conditions like Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Walking pace has been used in the past to measure health in older age, but the study is the first to show it can indicator of health from midlife.
“The thing that’s really striking is that this is in 45-year-old people, not the geriatric patients who are usually assessed with such measures,” says biomedical researcher Line J.H. Rasmussen from Duke University.
The researchers admitted some of the differences in health and cognition may be tied to lifestyle choices the subjects made.
But the study suggested subjects showed signs of being slow walkers early in life.
