Walking requires a huge number of signals between your brain and the muscles in your arms, chest, back, abdomen, pelvis and legs. Something that looks relatively straightforward is in fact incredibly complex . And the pace and smoothness of your walk can be an indicator of your health and how well you are ageing.
As the body ages, muscles lose mass, strength and quality. This process is called sarcopenia and it begins around your forties . Alongside this, the nervous system undergoes “atrophy”, where the nerves everywhere in the body function less efficiently and nerve numbers decrease.
It is thought that you lose 0.1% of your neurons (nerve cells) each year between the ages of 20 and 60, with the loss speeding up after that. If you live to 90, your brain will have lost 150g of tissue compared with its weight at age 50.
Studies have shown that your walking speed at age 45 is a strong predictor of your physical and mental health later in life. And there is a noticeable decline in walking speed by the time you pass 60 . The decline in speed and smoothness of your walk can be an early indicator of neurodegenerative conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease.
Parkinson’s interferes with the brain’s messages to the musculoskeletal system, causing the person’s gait to be slower, less symmetrical and more staggering. This can be subtle yet detectable during the early stages of the disease. With cognitive decline, the stride length when walking is significantly shorter.
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