Take a pedometer to work for better heart health

There is no escaping the facts, we Americans are woefully out of shape. According to government statistics, a nationwide obesity epidemic has up to two-thirds of Americans in its grip.

We're busy, too busy to find time the time necessary to get to the gym. And exercise equipment? Forget about it.
Like the gym, it is expensive. And where would we put a stationary bike or elliptical machine anyway?

Yet there is a small, inexpensive device available at most sporting goods outlets and drugstores that is all you really need to get on the road to a long and productive life. The device is called a pedometer, and it can help you escape the consequences of an obesity epidemic.

If you are interested in putting halt to weight gain, avoiding dementia and Alzheimer's disease, sidestepping heart disease, bypassing stroke or reducing the negative effects of type 2 diabetes and reduce stress, health experts recommend that you spend as little as $4 to buy a pedometer and start walking 10,000 steps.

"It's one of the more successful strategies to improve heart health," said Dr. Freny W. Mody, chief of cardiology for the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Health Care System and a professor at the University of California Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine.

"Research has shown that expending 200 calories a day through physical activity will improve heart health," Mody said. "Thirty minutes of vigorous walking a day would usually result in taking 10,000 steps and burning 200 calories."

While taking 10,000 steps a day is not by itself a weight-loss plan, Mody said, 30 minutes of vigorous walking three or more times a week will generally put the brakes on weight gain.

It sounds simple. Yet Mody acknowledged that most people are so busy that they find it difficult to even exercise 20 minutes per day.

This is where a pedometer comes in handy. Most not only count steps, but can tell you how long you've been walking. Depending on how much you are willing to spend - "expensive" pedometers can cost up to $25 - they can tell you how far you have walked and how many calories you have expended.

By wearing a pedometer, you can find out how many steps you take in a normal workday. Then you can figure out how many more steps are needed to reach 10,000. Once you set an average, you can increase your number of steps by 500 a day per week until you reach the 10,000-step level.

Mody is an advocate for the American Heart Association's Start! Challenge. The program is designed to spread the word about the benefits of walking to corporations and employers nationwide.

Persuading employers to get their workers up and away from their desks to participate in physical activity is a good idea on many levels, Mody said. It makes it acceptable for people to walk during their lunch hour or breaks.

"When it comes as part of the corporate culture, there is more comfort for employees to take time to be physically active," Mody said.

The American Heart Association's Start! program will provide low-cost pedometers to companies willing to make time available to employees during their workday. The AHA also provides information on how a healthier work force benefits companies through decreased absenteeism and lower health care costs. It provides exercise and nutrition trackers, monthly newsletters, recipes and more.

More information about Start! for companies and individuals can be found at the AHA Web site ( www.americanheart.org).

WALKING BENEFITS

The following is a sampling of the studies that have demonstrated the benefits of walking:

- Elderly men who walk two miles per day reduce their risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's disease by half when compared to men who walk less than a quarter of a mile per day, according to two studies of more than 2,200 Japanese-American men in Hawaii. The results were published in 2004 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The findings clarified how much exercise might be beneficial and are good news for older people who want to avoid mental decline but "don't like doing all that awful, sweaty stuff," said Bill Thies, vice president for medical and scientific affairs of the Alzheimer's Association.

- A brisk walk one hour per day can cut your risk for stroke by nearly 50 percent, according a 1988 study reported in Stroke, a journal of the American Heart Association. In the study of 11,130 Harvard University alumni, researchers found that people who expended the calories typically burned by a one-hour brisk walk, five days a week - had a 46 percent lower risk of stroke than those who did little to no exercise. Meanwhile, those expending the number of calories burned by walking briskly 30 minutes a day, five days a week had about a 24 percent reduction in stroke risk. "Not only did we find that physical activity is associated with reduced risk of stroke, but also we have some ideas as to how much and what type of activity might work best," said Dr. I-Min Lee of the Harvard School of Public Health.

- Men with type 2 diabetes can save their lives by walking, and the faster they walk the less likely they are to have a heart attack or stroke, according to research reported in 2005 in Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association. The study was led by Dr. Mihaela Tanasescu at the College of Health Sciences at Touro University International in Cypress, Calif. Diabetes is known to increase the risk of death by heart attack, Tanasescu said. What the study found is that diabetics who walked briskly between 3 and 4 mph for four hours a week, decreased their risk of heart attack between 36 percent and 43 percent.

- Walking 12 miles per week can help prevent weight gain and promote weight loss in non-dieting individuals, according to an article published in 2004 in the Archives of Internal Medicine. The small, eight-month, scientific study assigned exercise programs of differing intensity to 182 overweight men and women, aged 40 to 64, in an effort to determine the amount of exercise needed to prevent weight gain. Cris A. Slentz from Duke University Medical Center and colleagues split the participants into four groups. Depending on their assignment, group members either jogged approximately 20 miles per week, jogged 12 miles a week, walked 12 miles per week, or did not exercise at all. Not surprisingly, the participants who jogged the most had the greatest weight loss. However, the walking group enjoyed decreased abdominal waist and hip circumference measurements even though they did not change eating habits. "Most individuals can accomplish this by walking 30 minutes every day," the study authors concluded. 

© Copley News Service