By Staff Reports
(Hawaii)– From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.
A study indicates seniors who run regularly are better walkers in one key way than seniors who walk.
Researcher Justus Ortega of Humboldt State University in California saw signs of this in data on 30 seniors who ran or walked regularly. He looked at how efficient they were in using calories to get work done, in a test involving walking speed. He found seniors who ran regularly walked as fast as people in their twenties – and outshone the seniors who walked.
Ortega says the difference is important because of what other studies have shown:
“Walking speed has actually been associated with longevity, so those people who tend to walk faster tend to live longer.”
The study in the journal PLOS ONE was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Learn more at healthfinder.gov.
HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.