If you walk at this speed, you could live much longer

This article was updated on July 7, 2021.

If you’re someone that likes to take in the scenery around you and clog up sidewalks with your sluggish walking pace, there’s good reason for you to speed up your walk a step or two.

A study found that there’s a link between slow walking pace and an increased risk of death among cancer survivors, meaning the faster you walk, the better your chances are at living longer.

The study, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, said that while slow walking isn’t a cause of death, there is an increased mortality rate in cancer survivors who went on daily walks. Researchers said that the link between slow walking and early death showed up in nine cancer types, including breast, colon, melanoma, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, oral prostate, rectal, respiratory and urinary cancers.

“Cancer survivors are living longer than ever – and that’s good news,” Elizabeth A. Salerno, PhD, an assistant professor at Washington University, said in a press release. “But it’s important to improve our understanding of how the diagnosis and treatment of a broad range of cancers may affect walking pace during survivorship — a potentially modifiable risk factor — which could lead to new treatment and rehabilitation strategies to improve the health of these patients.”

Researchers examined over 233,000 participants in the National Institutes of Health-American Association of Retire Persons Diet and Health Study, which consisted of participants — ages 50 to 71 — answering questionnaires about their overall health and their walking habits. The questionnaires honed in on participants’ walking pace and whether they had any disability related to walking, such as having to walk at a slower pace or being unable to walk entirely.

Researchers followed up with participants over the course of a several years where they found that when compared with healthy participants, cancer survivors were 42% more likely to report walking at the slowest pace and 24% said they were disabled. In that, researchers said that cancer survivors who walked at the slowest pace had more than “twofold increased risk of death from any cause” when compared to others that walked at the fastest pace.

For most people, walking during the pandemic has been a life-changer due to it providing both exercise and calm in a time of unrest. Exercise has been directly linked with helping depression and anxiety, two mental health problems that have arisen during the pandemic due to increased isolation and fear of the unknown.

But the link between walking at a faster pace and longevity isn’t a new one. A 2018 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that people walking at an average or brisk pace had a higher chance of living longer than people who walked at a slow stroll. That study said that brisk walkers were 21% less likely to die from cardiovascular disease than slower walkers. More-so, in participants aged 60 and over, walking at a faster pace lowered their risk of dying by heart disease by 46%.