Walking at This Pace Reduces a Common Heart Problem by 43% ...Saudi Arabia

There's no doubt about it: Walking is great for your heart. It helps with many underlying risk factors for heart disease, such as high cholesterol, weight gain and chronic stress, to name a few.

Walking is an easy preventative strategy for improving heart health. But how do we walk in a way that squeezes out all the health benefits of walking? Well, you can start by adjusting your pace. Researchers have just discovered the exact walking pace women should use to stave off the risk of common heart issues.

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A new study published this week in the journal Heart found that a brisk walking pace—defined as over 4 miles an hour—was linked to a 43% lower risk of heart rhythm abnormalities compared to slow walkers pacing at less than 3 miles an hour. Women who kept a steady pace of 3 to 4 miles an hour reduced their risk of heart rhythm abnormalities by 35%.

In this study, heart rhythm abnormalities included the following conditions: atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat), tachycardia (resting heart rate above 100 beats per minute) and bradycardia (heart rate under 60 beats per minute). Problems with heart rhythm are becoming more common. For example, at least 10.55 million American adults have atrial fibrillation—three times higher than previous projections.

Given how walking pace is linked to a lower risk of heart disease, the researchers looked at how different walking speeds affected heart health effects. They analyzed walking speed information from 420,925 people in the United Kingdom, with 81,956 people having activity tracker data on time spent walking at different paces. The average age of people was 55 and 55% were women.

Over 6.5% of people had a slow walking pace, while 53% maintained an average walking pace. 41% had a brisk walking pace.

After 13 years, 9% of people develop heart rhythm problems. 23,526 people had atrial fibrillation, 19,093 had cardiac arrhythmias, 5,678 had an abnormally slow heart rate, and 2,168 had ventricular arrhythmias (irregular rhythms coming from the lower chambers of the heart). 

Walking at a steady or brisk pace was significantly associated with a lower risk of all heart rhythm abnormalities. Brisk walking was also linked to a 46% reduced risk of atrial fibrillation and a 39% reduced risk of cardiac arrhythmias compared to those walking slowly.

Walking time didn't show a strong connection to heart rhythm issues, but researchers did notice that those who walked more often had a 27% lower risk for those issues.

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Who Benefited the Most from Walking?

Women under 60 benefited the most from maintaining a brisk or average walk. These women were most likely not obese but had high blood pressure and two or more long-term conditions. The findings are consistent with recent research that shows women consistently experience greater heart health benefits from physical activity than men. According to the authors of the current study, the sex-specific difference may come from women showing more improvement in muscle strength and sex differences in muscle fiber type and size.

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In the current study, the researchers noticed that around 36% of walking pace and all heart rhythm abnormalities were influenced by metabolic and inflammatory factors. What does that mean exactly?

Well, the researchers believe this gives some evidence of how walking pace improves heart rhythm. By walking faster, a person lowers their obesity risk and inflammation, which, in turn, reduces the risk of heart problems like arrhythmia. This theory is supported by previous research that found a faster walking pace linked to lower obesity, blood sugar, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure—all factors that could cause heart rhythm issues if left unchecked.

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Study Limitations

The research was an observational study, meaning that it's hard to say that walking pace will always prevent heart rhythm problems. One issue is that other factors, like size and fitness level before the exercise, could have played more of a role in protecting the heart.

People with fast walking paces were also more likely to be men, live in less deprived areas and follow healthy lifestyles. Brisk walkers were also more likely to have smaller waists and report fewer long-term health conditions.

Still, the new study gives a better idea of how faster walking paces can affect heart health and who benefits most if they start today.

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