There has been a growing awareness of the vital importance of exercise to maintain cardiac well being. WebMD writes that a sedentary lifestyle is one of the top risk factors for heart disease. Fortunately, this is a risk factor that you can do something about. Regular exercise, especially aerobic exercise, has many benefits for heart health. In a news release on April 4, 2013, the American Heart Association has reported, Walking can lower risk of heart-related conditions as much as running.
Researchers have found that walking can lower risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes as much as running. It was found the more people walked or ran each week, the more their health benefits were increased. These surprising findings have been reported in the American Heart Association journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology. Researchers have found that the same energy which is used for moderate intensity walking and vigorous intensity running resulted in similar reductions in risk for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and possibly coronary heart disease over six year course of their study.
Paul T. Williams, Ph.D., the study’s principal author, has said, “Walking and running provide an ideal test of the health benefits of moderate-intensity walking and vigorous-intensity running because they involve the same muscle groups and the same activities performed at different intensities.” Williams has also said, “The more the runners ran and the walkers walked, the better off they were in health benefits. If the amount of energy expended was the same between the two groups, then the health benefits were comparable." Williams has noted that walking or running is a good investment in a person's future health.
