
In Praise of Walking - haasted
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/jul/28/its-a-superpower-how-walking-makes-us-healthier-happier-and-brainier
======
DoreenMichele
January 2001, ten weeks of chronic sinusitis turned to pneumonia. This was
followed by sleeping 18-20 hours/day for about 3.5 months, plus twice-weekly
doctors appointments while they called me _crazy_ for fearing I might die
while they ran more tests, stumped as to what was wrong with me.

In May, a sweat chloride test came back positive. The verdict: _atypical
cystic fibrosis._

I had already stopped being largely bedridden the month before in April. Many
years of rehabilitation would follow.

Walking played a very large role in my recovery. At one point, I was homeless
and my daily routine involved walking six to eight hours per day for some
months.

The lymphatic system is a key part of this.

Lymphatic fluid is basically your blood stripped of red and white blood cells.
While in your blood, it gets moved around by your heart.

But it doesn't stay in your blood vessels. Like water in the Earth's
ecosystem, it isn't confined to the creeks and rivers of blood vessels. It
seeps out into your tissues like groundwater, becoming _interstitial fluid._

It carries nutrients with it to nourish your tissues as it flows out. It
carries wastes with it as it flows back into your blood stream.

While out in your tissues, it is beyond the reach of your pumping heart. Its
return trip is typically sluggish.

Unless you are in motion. Then your skeletal muscles fill in where your heart
can't reach.

Interstitial fluid returns to your blood at several times it's normal rate
when you are active. When, in a word, you _exercise._

Walking helps your body take out the trash, a necessary element of the healing
process largely overlooked by our current medical mental models where we think
to add inputs in the form of drugs but mostly don't talk about throughputs.

~~~
krustyburger
This is very interesting to me. An Aunt of mine is a professional Rolfer, and
from what I understand the Rolf system heavily emphasizes the existence of
non-blood fluid in the body and the importance of moving/loosening it. Perhaps
there’s more to it than I had thought.

~~~
DoreenMichele
Massage and warm salt baths seem to both be helpful and can be especially
useful where exercise is not an option.

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markbnj
My personal experience with walking began six years ago. I weighed 270 pounds,
felt tired and lethargic all the time, huffed and puffed any time I had to
climb stairs etc. I decided to make a change, dropped sugar from my many daily
coffees, and started walking two miles every night. I mapped out a route
around our house and for the first five years I took our dogs with me. Where
we live is hilly and initially each night felt like a struggle and I didn't
want to do it much of the time. That sort of perversely made it a point of
pride to do it regardless, and we went even on nights when it was drizzling or
very cold. Six years later the transformation has been pretty satisfying. Down
60 pounds, so much more energy it's hard to describe the difference. I make
the whole walk now in 30 minutes easily maintaining four mph up hills and
down, and I could hold a conversation while doing it and not sound out of
breath. It is now a well-established habit and on those nights when I can't go
I feel like a slug :).

~~~
agumonkey
This is the kind of things that makes me believe that part of the potential
collapse will yield very good things. Bad diet, low activity .. all these are
super detrimental and are double penalty both financially and existentially.

I'm betting a pinky that we'll all be happier doing "more" simple physical
things.

~~~
dTal
I assume by "collapse" you mean economic and social breakdown provoked by
climate change and other chaotic forces. In which case most people will die of
starvation, and the world will become very nasty indeed.

I agree that modern society is very sick, but I don't think it's productive to
look forward to the day when it all falls through. I do not aspire to die of
starvation, or (if I survive) to live in feudal society of medieval
technology. No matter how much exercise and fresh air I get. We need to think
of a way to heal ourselves without losing the social and technological
progress we have made.

------
fragsworth
I worry sometimes about the actual effects of exercise on our health, and the
legitimacy of these studies. It's impossible to detach these studies from the
confounding factors - if your health declines (for any reason), you will stop
exercising. I feel like we have to take any studies that use correlations with
a grain of salt.

How do you study the effects of exercise when there are such massive
confounding variables?

~~~
moonhorse
I exercise a lot. But I do it mostly for the intrinsic fun part.

I doubt it has a big impact on our health and longevity. Once a research says
regular medium intensity exercise could potentially prolong our lives by 3 to
5 years. But that is it. If you exercise for 50 years, 3 times a week, and 1
hour per session plus 30 minutes preparation, that is actually 12150 hours in
total and translates into about 2 years of productive life.

So its ROI from a longevity perspective is really not as high as some of us
think.

~~~
btrettel
The ROI argument is one reason why I commute by bike. 7 days a week no
problem, no real preparation time. Takes up time I would otherwise be wasting
sitting in a car or public transit.

Last week according to my log I rode for 213 minutes. That's a bit more than
30 minutes per day.

~~~
Franciscouzo
You have to take into account that riding a bike is way more risky than using
a car.

~~~
dredmorbius
Citation requested.

I've been looking for information on risk, overall, by passenger miles
travelled, by trips, and by time-in-mode (which adjusts for typical trip
length).

Only partially successful, though I find:

30,690 overall auto fatalities.

\- 6,067 cycling & edestrial fatalities, combined.

\- "More than 90% of pedestrian fatalities occurred when the victims were hit
by automobiles and light trucks."

\- "A related study on risk factors for on-road cycling commuters indicated
that prior to car-bicycle accidents, 89% of cyclists were traveled in a safe
and legal manner. In addition, vehicle drivers were at fault in 87% of the
events."

[https://journalistsresource.org/studies/environment/transpor...](https://journalistsresource.org/studies/environment/transportation/comparing-
fatality-risks-united-states-transportation-across-modes-time/)

The risk externalities of motorised vs nonmotorised transport appear far
greater.

~~~
statguy
The parent didn't mean to say whether cyclists or drivers were more or less at
fault, but for every minute/mile spent on a cycle instead of a car, the
likelihood of injury is probably higher.

~~~
dredmorbius
Understood. However it's interesting to note that motor vehicles are the major
_source_ of cycling risk, all the same.

------
panarky
In his book _Thinking, Fast and Slow_ , Daniel Kahneman says that walking
slowly helps with thinking, while walking fast "brings about a sharp
deterioration in my ability to think coherently".

[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZuKTvERuPG8C&q=walking#v=s...](https://books.google.com/books?id=ZuKTvERuPG8C&q=walking#v=snippet&q=walking&f=false)

~~~
baroffoos
I can relate to this. While cycling I think about stuff and the intensity
really determines how focused I can be thinking. During really high intensity
cycling my thinking is usually reduced to just a looping line from a song or
"go go go"

I was considering if a modification to a standing desk to make it a cycling
desk would be a good idea but now I think there is just no point because you
will be half assing both exercise and focus. Really what you want to do is do
some high intensity effort while doing nothing else and then low intensity
stuff while working. A walking desk might still be a good idea if you set it
to 2-3km/h. I find standing to be a little uncomfortable for long periods but
walking is fine.

~~~
vinceguidry
The issue with a walking desk is that the treadmill only goes one speed, you
have to manually adjust it, it doesn't just let you walk naturally. It just
wound up being distracting. It's not like the experience of walking and
thinking at all.

I would pay good money for one that did.

~~~
gniv
Look into non-motorized treadmills. The curved ones are popular now, they are
easier to use.

------
Vekz
The relationship between physical activity and neuroplasticity touched on in
this article is also deeply discussed in the book:

Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain

[https://www.amazon.com/Spark-Revolutionary-Science-
Exercise-...](https://www.amazon.com/Spark-Revolutionary-Science-Exercise-
Brain/dp/0316113514/)

~~~
rocgf
Read this quite recently, indeed a very good read.

------
myt6fore
Couple of suggestions for prospective walkers (or rollers) out there.
Successful walking is about fine-tuning yourself to your environment. In order
to do so you need couple basics straightened out.

Do yourself a favor and get a flat footwear. Zero-drop shoes will help body
realign your lumbar spine and neck (heels push the butt outwards, forcing the
spine to compensate). Enthusiastic walking, like running, is a repetitive
stress activity so you want your joints in their evolved alignment to avoid
fatigue or even damage seeping in. Note, if you choose minimal (or the
nowadays called barefoot) footwear- go gradually, allow your foot to build
it's strength back up.

Be aurally aware of your environment. Apple earbuds (wired or wireless) are
very good in this regard, as these'll let you hear stuff around you. Bone-
conducting headphones are also a good option.

~~~
mytailorisrich
> Be aurally aware of your environment. Apple earbuds (wired or wireless) are
> very good in this regard, as these'll let you hear stuff around you. Bone-
> conducting headphones are also a good option.

Or, you know, just focus on one thing at a time and don't listen to music/take
a call while walking.

------
tluyben2
Personally I am a lot more productive during + after walking in nature. It
saves me a lot of time if I walk through a forest before or during writing
code. Better code, less mistakes, less refactoring etc etc. The effect (again
personally) is far less if not nature but a city for instance.

~~~
agumonkey
Last week I alternated reading programming books and coding with jogging
sessions. Every time I hit a mental block or just coding fatigue. I'd leave
and run a bit. It wasn't super effective but overall it avoided stress and
gave room for free mind wandering and new ideas.

~~~
tluyben2
That's why I went from short jobs to long walks; I can pretty much do most my
work (70%) while walking (in forests; not in the city; I would get literally
hit by a truck). It seems it does not give me the same fatigue is setting and
taking pauses in the office.

~~~
agumonkey
> from short jobs to long walks

I fail to parse that

~~~
tluyben2
Sorry, jogs... I was actually walking when talking to my phone to post that :)
Unlike software, it did not generate a syntax error.

~~~
agumonkey
haha, I thought about that but really wasn't sure

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colonel_exploit
I'm all for walking... Just be mindful to cover up if you take a stroll on
your lunch break like I often do. UV damage is scary.

~~~
siphon22
>UV damage is scary.

Can you expand on that? Curious to know through your experience.

~~~
WhompingWindows
I have fair skin in New England, use facial spf 35 sunscreen daily from May-
September, and use spf 70 whenever I'm outside for longer than 15+ minutes.
It's important as skin cancer is just bound to happen if you don't use it, as
a fair skinned person. Not doing so would mean pieces of face/ear expensively
sliced off when you're older. Both my parents grew up w/o sunscreen and got
intensive burns, both of them got skin cancer on their face.

But even before old age and cancer, your skin will be healthier and look
younger for much longer if you use sunscreen daily, use a hat, avoid 10am-2pm
exposure, etc. The last one is interesting because during midday, the sun is
directly overhead, meaning there is much less atmosphere between you and it,
so even less UV is blocked.

------
mytailorisrich
I walk 1+ hour per day to commute to and from work (+train).

It's free, great exercise, and on busy days it's a great feeling to overtake
all those people trapped in traffic ;)

------
awillen
Ever since phones started having pedometers, I've made it a habit to walk
around the room while watching TV. During football season, I was often
sedentary all day Sunday and am now instead walking for miles. One of the
simplest things I've done that has a very positive effect on my health.

That said, when I watch the games in bars on Sunday, people think I'm a bit
strange...

~~~
skinnymuch
Yes I pace with most things now. My friends have gotten used to it but anyone
else gets nervous and anxious with my constant pacing. I lost the multi-year
habit where I averaged about 120K steps/week until quite recently. Now I’m
getting back to closing in on that number. Last few weeks have been 110K
steps/week.

------
rafaelvasco
I run from home to the subway station and from the station to home everyday. I
can't imagine my life without it anymore.

------
BrissyCoder
One more reason Lime Scooters suck.

