Walk faster! It lowers your risk of Type 2 diabetes, British research says

It is not about distance but speed.

Walking faster, according to research by the British Journal of Sports Medicine, can significantly lower the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

The findings were based on long-term studies published between 1999 and 2022. Around 508,000 adults from across Britain, Japan and the United States were included.

“Walking at faster speeds (4kmh to 8kmh) was associated with a graded decrease in the risk of Type 2 diabetes,” the journal said in its report published on Nov 28.

Compared with strolling at less than 3kmh, an average or normal walking speed of 3kmh to 5kmh was associated with a 15 per cent lower risk of the disease, the journal said.

This was independent of the time spent walking, it added.

The risk was reduced by 39 per cent with walking speeds of more than 6kmh. Every increase of 1km of speed was associated with a 9 per cent reduction in risk, the study found.

However, the researchers did not determine the optimal speed to ward off the disease, news website Medical News Today said.

Scientists have already pointed to evidence that frequent walking is associated with a lower risk of Type 2 diabetes. But there had been no clarity on the required walking speed to reduce that risk.

“While current strategies to increase total walking time are beneficial, it may also be reasonable to encourage people to walk at faster speeds to further increase the health benefits of walking,” the researchers said.

However, said Assistant Professor Amanda Paluch, an epidemiologist and kinesiologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst not involved in the research, reaching walking speeds of at least 4kmh might be difficult for some people to achieve.

This is due to their age, fitness level and health status, a point the researchers acknowledged.

A better gauge, NBC News quoted Prof Paluch as saying, would be to walk at a pace where one is able to talk but not sing.

That is a sign that the heart is sufficiently elevated, she said.

Another health expert not involved in the study, Professor Jochen Kressler from San Diego State University, said people may still be able to benefit from a reduced risk of Type 2 diabetes at speeds below 4kmh. He also noted that the new study did not look into whether slow walking reduced that risk compared with no walking at all.

Type 2 diabetes is one of the world’s major health threats, according to the World Health Organisation. It is a major cause of conditions such as blindness, kidney failure, heart attack and stroke.

There are currently 537 million adults worldwide with diabetes. That number is predicted to rise to 783 million by 2045.