It’s hard to overstate the benefit of walking. After all, we are bipedal organisms. Getting our steps in is one of the best things we can do for our long-term health. That’s why for this week’s wrap, I’ll cover a few different research articles that highlight this fact while sticking with the typical categorical organization and still covering other topics.
This article from Inc. about how Steve Jobs used to take walking breaks to think things over inspired me to cover this topic.
Section Headers1
DIET | EXERCISE | SLEEP | STRESS | CONNECTION
Diet
This study isn’t really a diet study, nevertheless, it relates…
After Dinner Rest a While, After Supper Walk a Mile? A Systematic Review with Meta-analysis on the Acute Postprandial Glycemic Response to Exercise Before and After Meal Ingestion in Healthy Subjects and Patients with Impaired Glucose Tolerance | January 30, 2023
https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs40279-022-01808-7
N = 116 (from 8 RCTs2; 47 diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, 69 without)
Meta-analysis
This meta-analysis validated the health benefit of a post-dinner passeggiata. (That’s Italian for a leisurely walk or stroll, especially one taken in the evening.3) Essentially, exercising or simply taking a walk after a meal can help regulate your blood sugar so that it doesn’t get too high.
Exercise, i.e., walking, has a greater acute beneficial impact on postprandial hyperglycemia4 when undertaken as soon as possible after a meal rather than after a longer interval or before eating.
Exercise
Steps per Day and All-Cause Mortality in Middle-aged Adults in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study | Sept. 2021
https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.24516
N = 2110 (young-to-middle-age white and black persons)
Longitudinal (prospective cohort study)
This study sought to answer the question, “Are step volume or intensity associated with premature mortality among middle-aged Black and White women and men?” To do so, they enrolled 2110 people in their research study with a mean follow-up time of 10.8 years. What they found is pretty astonishing: participants taking ≥ 7000 steps/day had a 50% to 70% lower risk of premature death, compared to participants taking fewer than 7000 steps/day. Notably as well:
Participants in the low step group had higher BMI, lower self-rated health, and higher prevalence of stage 2 hypertension and diabetes than the moderate and high step volume groups.
If you dig into the methods and results, you’ll find that this study is very rigorous and you’re likely to have most of your questions and doubts about its findings addressed.
Sleep
Comparative efficacy of exercise regimens on sleep quality in older adults: A systematic review and network meta-analysis | October, 2022
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2022.101673
N = 3519 older adults
Systemic review and meta-analysis
This study is pay-walled5, so I’ll just highlight the key part from the abstract:
Muscle endurance training combined with walking led to significantly higher sleep quality than did regimens involving sleep hygiene, Pilates, only walking, health education, resistance training, Taichi, resistance training combined with walking, or yoga. Muscle endurance training combined with walking was identified as the optimal exercise program (88.9%) for enhancing sleep quality in older adults.
If you’re interested in reading into this study more and don’t have institutional access6 to the article just let me know and I can send it to you.
Stress
Cognitive benefits of walking in natural versus built environments | March 2018 | https://doi.org/10.1080/16078055.2018.1445025
N = 10 university students
Within-Subjects experimental study
This study sought to confirm the cognitive benefits of exercise in outdoor environments using established cognitive tests while measuring brainwave activity throughout the process using portable electroencephalograph (EEG) headsets. Participants completed cognitive performance tests before and after walking indoors, then again on a different session while walking outdoors.
The study showed notable cognitive benefits after both walking conditions, with greater mental recovery following the outdoor walk, based on Stroop Test results.7 Additionally, EEG readings indicated a higher meditative state during the outdoor walking condition and that the relaxed, meditative effects lasted longer after outdoor walks.8
This study was not all that rigorous. There were only 10 participants, who were all university students. For more robust results, you typically want at least 30 participants in a study that are representative of a larger population. If you visit the study, you’ll see that it’s paywalled and the abstract doesn’t even mention these details. The abstract is sorely lacking in many key details, including statistics. Anyway, I essentially pirated the paper to find this information (whoops, sue me!) and I won’t say much more other than that these findings are interesting but the topic should be studied more rigorously.
Connection
Disconnected: What Can We Learn from Individuals with Very Low Nature Connection? | June 2022
https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19138021
N = 4735 (2450 female, 16–65+ years of age)
Observational (secondary analysis of survey data)9
This study is based on survey data that comes out of England from between 2009 and 2019. I honestly didn’t dive into this one due to personal time constraints, but it seems like a very interesting paper, here’s the key findings from the study abstract:
From our analysis of this disconnected population, we can see that they are more likely to be young (16–24 years old), male, not employed and living in rented accommodation. We also observe that they have lower levels of life satisfaction and pro-environmental behaviours. We go on to present an initial theoretical discussion as to the origins of disconnection and propose further research directions to tackle the under-theorisation of this construct.
And on that note, I recommend spending some time outside this weekend. Perhaps take a walk in a local park or something like that. That’s what I was up to right before sitting down to finish this.10
As always, thanks for reading! Until next week ✌️
Disclaimer: This newsletter provides health information and research for educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult a healthcare professional before making any health-related decisions. We are not medical professionals.
If you happen to notice any errors in this post or have any feedback, please reach out.
If you have a Substack account, please comment on and/or like the post, it will help drive traffic to my very small publication. Thank you!
I’ve decided that for the foreseeable future, the following categories make the most sense: Diet, Exercise, Sleep, Stress (Management), and Connection (and maybe sometimes I’ll include an “Other” section too).
randomized controlled trials, the gold standard of medical research; these kinds of studies are best at elucidating causation
postprandial = after eating a meal; hyperglycemia = high blood sugar
… and to be honest, I’m running out of time to get this wrap out before my Friday dinner plans and don’t have time to read into the study much…
This is what it’s called when one’s affiliation with a university or research organization allows them to access research that is otherwise pay-walled.
This is a psychological task that generally measures executive control. Learn more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroop_effect
This section was written with the help of the Briefly ChatGPT bot
I recommend seeing the first paragraph of the methods section to understand this better.
It was 83 degrees Fahrenheit in Chicago today! So I went to the lake for a final swim of the year with a couple of friends. It was cold, but it was worth it.