Ten Minutes Daily Brisk Walking helps avoid Joint Problems

Daily brisk walking helps avoid joint problems Just ten minutes a day of brisk walking can reduce the likelihood of impaired mobility in older adults by 85%. Similarly, the risk of difficulties with daily tasks such as bathing and dressing, can be reduced by 45%. All this emerges from a study by Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

Participants were adults aged 45 to 79, at elevated risk of osteoarthritis of the knee, based on factors such as age, BMI, previous injury etc. Four years after the start of the study, 24% of adults who did not get the weekly hour of brisk walking were moving too slowly to safely cross the street, and 23% reported problems performing morning routines like getting dressed.

Lead author of the study, Professor Dorothy Dunlop, said “This minimum threshold may motivate inactive older adults to begin their path toward a physically active lifestyle with the wide range of health benefits promoted by physical activity.”

(One Hour a Week: Moving to Prevent Disability in Adults With Lower Extremity Joint Symptoms. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, online 19 March 2019.)

Author: Robin Costello

I offer traditional Chinese acupuncture in Exeter, from a tranquil clinic a mile from the city centre, and next to the University of Exeter. I graduated originally from the London School of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine’s 3 year full time Acupuncture Diploma (DipAc) course. I am on the practitioners register of the British Acupuncture Council (MBAcC), a regulatory and professional body with an entry standard of a full three year undergraduate degree level training. I have worked in a hospital in south west China, deepening my knowledge and using acupuncture and Chinese massage (tuina) as the treatment of choice in its country of origin. I have taught Chinese medicine in colleges, the NHS and at university level. I also practise Qi Gong, and Chinese dietary therapy, that is the medicinal use of ordinary foods, chosen to help achieve particular therapeutic effects in different individuals.