9 Health Benefits of Walking

Here is why you need to stick to your daily walking routine or to start walking from today itself:

1. It's Easy to Start: To start off with walking, all you need is a pair of walking shoes. You can walk anywhere (in a park, your terrace, or on the treadmill) and anytime (in the morning, noon, evening or even late at night after your dinner). Start with 10 to 15 minutes and then increase the time gradually.
2. Improves Your Spirit: Walking improves your spirit, mood and breaks you free from stress. A study published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine showed that students who walked regularly had lower levels of stress than the couch potatoes, who did little or no exercise at all. Walking and other exercises help you in inhaling more oxygen while facilitating the release of endorphins, the feel good hormones.
3. Boosts Your Brain: It is a known fact that exercise of any form helps in improving our physical and mental ability and alertness. A study conducted by the National Council of Aging concluded that walking 45 minutes a day makes a person sharper in terms of his mental ability.
4. Helps in Reducing the Risk of Heart Disease and Stroke: Walking for 30 to 45 minutes daily helps in improving blood circulation while regularizing the heart beat. It also helps in improving the good cholesterol level (HDL) in the blood while decreasing the bad cholesterol (LDL), thereby performing an overall protective function.
5. Helps in Maintaining Blood Sugar Levels: Walking for 45 minutes in the morning helps a diabetic individual to control his blood sugar levels. Walking on specific times helps in different manners. For example, walking for 10 to 15 minutes after your meals helps in decreasing the postprandial blood sugar whereas walking for 30 minutes or more in the late evening hours helps in controlling the fasting blood sugar level by controlling the overnight hepatic output of glucose (the glucose produced by the liver).
   
   Walking is not only beneficial for the diabetics, but it also helps in cutting down the risk of developing diabetes in those individuals who are prone to the illness. A study conducted by the School of Public Health University of Pittsburgh discovered that walking for 30 minutes a day cuts diabetes risk for overweight as well as non-overweight men and women.
6. Prevents Erectile Dysfunction: Walking briskly for at least two miles (3.2 km) every day is known for reducing impotence in men. This has been established in a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and the effect was more prominent in middle aged men as well as in diabetic men.
7. Reduces the Risk of Cancer: Walking has been beneficial for those who are undergoing cancer treatment. It improves their chances of recovery and survival. Walking improves the feeling of hunger in these patients and helps them in developing some interest in their eating. Walking also helps in reducing the risks of various cancers like that of the breast and the colon. A paper presented at the 95th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Orlando suggested that walking improves the survival of those suffering from breast cancer while helping in reducing the overall risk strikers of cancer.
8. Helps in Weight Maintenance: Whether your motive is to lose or gain weight, walking is one kind of exercise which can help you in both the situations. Walking when followed with a controlled diet helps you in losing weight. Walking pumps up your metabolism and you can expect to lose inches of fat. It is a healthy aerobic exercise which also helps you in maintaining your weight once your goal is achieved.
9. Walkers have Long Lives: A Honolulu based heart study conducted on 8,000 men found that walking just for two miles (3.2 km) a day cuts the risk of death by almost 50 percent. The risk of death due to cancer was found to be even lesser. Some other studies also had similar findings. So walk your way to a longer life.

What does it take to get started with walking? Some motivation and a pair of walking shoes! Right? Get some friends with you as your walking partners. Walking in a group is such a fun! And enjoying an evening tea in the company of your friends after a session of evening walk will be more refreshing!


 http://www.lifemojo.com/lifestyle/9-health-benefits-of-walking-132769302#ixzz1Nm8M6m4d

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