Walking as Medicine

Story

Connected to · 4

cofactor · 3

Sedentary office body
The harm of sitting is tied to your total daily activity, and you do not need one hard workout to offset it. Treating walking as a medicine you take every day, plus getting up often to break up sitting, is the lowest-barrier approach there is.
Exercise as medicine
When muscles contract, they can move glucose into cells without insulin, through the glucose transporter GLUT4. That is why a walk after a meal flattens the blood glucose curve, and it is the mechanism behind calling walking a medicine.
Sedentary office body
Breaking up sitting and hitting your step count are two separate accounts: someone can reach their daily steps and still sit motionless the rest of the day. More steps are linked with lower risk of death, while the metabolic problems of sitting need to be interrupted by getting up often.

regulates · 1

Type 2 Diabetes
For people with chronic disease, walking is the lowest-barrier part of managing blood glucose: it needs no equipment and no heavy sweating, because the muscle contractions themselves move glucose out of the blood.

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Stop 1/5

An underrated medicine

EVIDENCEGUIDE 1

READ THE ORIGINAL

Of all forms of exercise, walking is probably the most underrated. It is too ordinary, too effortless, too unlike a workout, so many people feel it does not count. But if you went looking for an activity that almost anyone can do, that can last for decades, and that is linked to a clearly lower risk of death from any cause, its name would very likely be walk a little more each day.

The real dose of walking is not the mythical 10,000 steps. This story covers how much you actually need and how to make it count; where the 10,000 steps figure came from is told in the story vs steady-state.

First, a common misunderstanding. The current US physical activity guidelines (the 2018 HHS edition) recommend that adults build up about 150 minutes of moderate activity a week; and from this edition on, they dropped the old rule that a bout had to last at least 10 minutes to count. The extra stretches on your commute, the few flights of stairs, the scattered walking to and from the shops all count toward your activity. The bar for walking is much lower than you think.

One situation is not something to walk off: if one calf or ankle suddenly swells, feels warm, or hurts when pressed, see a doctor the same day.

Educational content, not medical advice — consult a clinician.

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Walking as Medicine

Story

Connected to · 4

cofactor · 3

Sedentary office body
The harm of sitting is tied to your total daily activity, and you do not need one hard workout to offset it. Treating walking as a medicine you take every day, plus getting up often to break up sitting, is the lowest-barrier approach there is.
Exercise as medicine
When muscles contract, they can move glucose into cells without insulin, through the glucose transporter GLUT4. That is why a walk after a meal flattens the blood glucose curve, and it is the mechanism behind calling walking a medicine.
Sedentary office body
Breaking up sitting and hitting your step count are two separate accounts: someone can reach their daily steps and still sit motionless the rest of the day. More steps are linked with lower risk of death, while the metabolic problems of sitting need to be interrupted by getting up often.

regulates · 1

Type 2 Diabetes
For people with chronic disease, walking is the lowest-barrier part of managing blood glucose: it needs no equipment and no heavy sweating, because the muscle contractions themselves move glucose out of the blood.

Read full story

Stop 1/5

An underrated medicine

EVIDENCEGUIDE 1

READ THE ORIGINAL

Of all forms of exercise, walking is probably the most underrated. It is too ordinary, too effortless, too unlike a workout, so many people feel it does not count. But if you went looking for an activity that almost anyone can do, that can last for decades, and that is linked to a clearly lower risk of death from any cause, its name would very likely be walk a little more each day.

The real dose of walking is not the mythical 10,000 steps. This story covers how much you actually need and how to make it count; where the 10,000 steps figure came from is told in the story vs steady-state.

First, a common misunderstanding. The current US physical activity guidelines (the 2018 HHS edition) recommend that adults build up about 150 minutes of moderate activity a week; and from this edition on, they dropped the old rule that a bout had to last at least 10 minutes to count. The extra stretches on your commute, the few flights of stairs, the scattered walking to and from the shops all count toward your activity. The bar for walking is much lower than you think.

One situation is not something to walk off: if one calf or ankle suddenly swells, feels warm, or hurts when pressed, see a doctor the same day.

Educational content, not medical advice — consult a clinician.