赶紧了 - 人行走的速度可能和寿命有关

美国一项研究显示，对老年人来说，行走速度快慢可能与其寿命长短存在一定关联。美国匹茨堡大学研究人员在新一期《美国医学会杂志》上报告说，他们跟踪研究逾3.4万名65岁以上老人后发现，行走速度较快与部分老年人寿命较长有关。研究人员认为，行走速度今后或许可成为衡量老人健康与长寿的一个指标。研究人员解释说，行走需要体力，要求心脏、肺、血循环系统、神经系统及肌肉骨骼系统等相互协调。行走速度减缓可能反应人体内某系统受到损害，同时意味着行走会耗费更多体能，这可能与老人的预期寿命长短有关。

How fast you walk may determine your longevity. A new study says faster walking speeds were associated with living longer, and researchers even found that predicting survival based on gait speed was as accurate as predictions based on age, sex, chronic conditions, smoking history, blood pressure, body mass index and hospitalization.

Want to know how long you or your aging parents will live? One simple indicator of well-being and longevity among older people is their walking speed, new research shows.

In an analysis of nine studies involving more than 34,000 people ages 65 and older, faster walking speeds were associated with living longer: Predicted years of remaining life for each age and both sexes increased as gait-speed increased. The most significant gains were after age 75.

In addition, researchers found that predicting survival based on gait speed was as accurate as predictions based on age, sex, chronic conditions, smoking history, blood pressure, body mass index and hospitalization.

"My hope is that we begin to think about ways to reflect the health and function of older people that goes beyond diseases," says lead researcher Stephanie Studenski, a geriatric physician at the University of Pitt*****urgh, whose analysis appears today in the Journal of American Medical Association. "Functional status (walking speed) is an important reflection of health."

Walking is a reliable tool to measure well-being, Studenski says, because it requires body support, timing and power, and it places demands on the brain, spinal cord, muscles and joints, heart and lungs. Slowing down is associated with aging. By age 80, gait speed is 10% to 20% slower than in young adults, she says.

The findings can provide doctors with an inexpensive, safe and simple way of measuring performance that can help identify health problems, she says, and in many cases the results can lead to treatments that can improve well-being, ward off disabilities and help the elderly maintain independence.

"It's a very useful tool, and some physicians already use it," says Evan Hadley, associate director of geriatrics at the National Institute on Aging. "It's far from universal, though. This study does show walking speed is a very strong predictor of survival."

In the study, gait speed was calculated using distance in meters and seconds. All subjects were told to walk at their usual pace and from a standing start. Average speed was 3 feet a second (about 2 miles an hour).

During the 14-year course of the study, there were 17,528 deaths. Those who walked slower than 2 feet a second (about 1.36 miles an hour) had an increased risk of dying. Those who walked 3.3 feet a second (about 2.25 mph) or faster survived longer than would be expected by age or sex alone.

Outside of the study presented in JAMA, Studenski measured the walking gait of Edward Gerjuoy, 92, a professor emeritus of physics at Pitt, at 4.26 feet a second or about 3 mph. She says his probability of living 10 more years (to age 102) is about 40%, and his median life expectancy is about seven years.

He attributes his longevity to luck. He has always tried to maintain a healthy weight, he says, but he didn't start going to a gym to work out until he was 80, and he was never athletic. Now his "workouts" involve climbing the stairs daily at the university.

"My office is on the third floor," he says. "I walk from the parking lot to my office and down to the second floor several times a day because the printer is there."

He plans to keep climbing the stairs and is encouraged by Studenski's findings.

Studenski says the researchers are not advising people to walk faster -- that would be unsafe -- and some slow walkers do live a long time. "A very important point is that your body chooses a walking speed that is best for you," she says. "If a person is walking slowly, I might be able to identify what might be contributing to their problem and, in doing so, find ways to help them function better."

By Janice Lloyd (Sci-Tech Today)