Fitness or walking speed has long been a common biomarker for measuring the neurological and physiological health of the elderly. However, a fascinating recent study shows for the first time that movement speed is also an effective measure of biological aging for people in their 40s.
Previous studies have shown that: “Doctors have found that people aged 70 to 80 who walk slowly have a shorter life expectancy than other older people of the same age. But a new study, which looked at subjects from kindergarten to their 50s, found that a slow walking pace is a warning sign for health. , and this can be achieved decades before old age strikes.
The data used in this report was collected using a longitudinal influence study method known as the Dunedin Health and Development Multidisciplinary Study. This method was conducted by closely following a group of subjects since their birth in the early 1970s. The study sample consisted of 904 people and they are now 45 years old.
The research data was used to test two hypotheses: First, does walking speed in middle age reflect the first signs of accelerated biological aging? And second, is walking speed in middle age linked to poor neurocognitive function in childhood?
The results of the study revealed a strong correlation between walking speed and physical and biological indicators of accelerated aging. The slowest walkers at age 45 had brain structural differences such as lower total brain volume and average cortical thickness. This indicates that walking speed is not only an indicator of declining health in the elderly, but also an indicator of accelerated biological aging in middle-aged subjects.
The study also found a correlation between a child’s neurocognition at age 3 and a person’s walking speed at age 45. The link was strong enough that the researchers could use the index. years later.
However, this research data is not without limits. Dunedin’s study regretted not having recorded brain imaging data from younger subjects or walking speed. This means that the study did not track changes in walking speed from adolescence to adulthood. The causal mechanism of the relationship between childhood neurocognitive function and walking speed in middle age is also unknown.
From a clinical standpoint, research shows that speed of movement can be a useful indicator of health problems in middle-aged adults, and it’s not the only study to use gait as an indicator. diagnostic tool. This new study shows that gait analysis can identify varying degrees of intellectual decline in the early stages of cognitive decline and even detect glaucoma before symptoms of visual impairment appear.
