The faster we walk, the less we age, according to a study

Walking is good for health.

But walking fast would be more so.

Scientists from the University of Leicester (United Kingdom) recently demonstrated that brisk walking helps maintain your body at a younger biological age, reports

.

According to the results of their study, published Wednesday in

, people aged 56 who practice the sport would have an average biological age of 40 years.

To reach this conclusion, the researchers studied the genetic data of nearly 406,000 Britons, and in particular the length of the telomeres of their white blood cells.

This information is considered a marker of biological age because telomere length helps determine the ability of cells to divide.

The more a cell divides, the shorter the telomeres become, until division becomes impossible.

The cells then become senescent and their accumulation contributes to aging.

Stop the clocks!

A major new study of genetic data from more than 400,000 UK adults published in @CommsBio has revealed a clear link between walking pace and a genetic marker of biological age.

👉 https://t.co/sfwBSmyeLr 👈 #CitizensOfChange pic.twitter.com/zUg4CRJh4u

— University of Leicester (@uniofleicester) April 20, 2022

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The importance of intensity

The practice of brisk walking, that is to say that exceeding the pace of 6.4 km / h, thus appeared to particularly favor the preservation of telomeres.

"The intensity with which the usual fitness walking movement is performed can be important for health, regardless of the total amount performed," notes Paddy Dempsey, a researcher specializing in the field of physical activity and lead author of the study.

According to him, practicing this sport regularly over everyday distances would be enough to have positive effects.

In 2019, researchers from the same university had shown that a brisk walk of ten minutes a day was linked to a longer life expectancy, increasing that of fast walkers by twenty years compared to slow walkers.

A brisk walk of twenty minutes would reduce the risk of illness.

Effects all the more increased as this practice is initiated early.

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