Why we need a campaign to encourage more people to walk - Ismail Mulla
The pandemic has led people to a more sedentary lifestyle than before. With that comes a slew of health challenges that are going to start materialising in the not too distant future.
With the weather beginning to lift and summer time now here, it is the perfect window of opportunity to encourage people to become more active.
The Government should launch a campaign to get people walking more. This is not about pushing picturesque walks in the Dales, as lovely as they are, to people who are unlikely to ever have access to them or even know where to begin. But rather about getting people to think about how they can incorporate daily exercise into their everyday lives.
I recently started doing a daily walk after being encouraged by the GP to do so. Nothing too onerous or indeed picturesque. Just a brisk two to three mile walk through an industrial area to the town centre and back.
Previously, I figured I didn’t have the time. But now I jot notes for work down and answer emails on the mobile phone as I walk. It gets me away from the screen for a bit without impacting productivity. While, hopefully, improving my health.
This is also proved by studies. A recent study by researchers in China, found that short bursts of exercise that last a few minutes a day – such as running for the bus – could slash the risk of conditions like arthritis, heart disease and dementia.
The study included 96,408 people taking part in the UK Biobank study, who wore a device tracking their movement for a week.
Experts compared the data with the likelihood of dying or developing eight health conditions - heart disease, irregular heartbeat, type 2 diabetes, liver disease, long-term lung conditions, chronic kidney disease, dementia and immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, which include arthritis and psoriasis - over seven years.
The study found that people who dedicated a higher portion of their time exercising doing so vigorously had a lower risk of all diseases. Even if only a modest amount of time is spent exercising, it is still beneficial.
With the NHS in a perennial state of crisis and Britain facing an aging population, preventative action needs to be at the forefront of our health strategy. Britain can’t afford to continue throwing more money at the NHS. That is why a campaign, that people can relate with, should be launched to get people exercising wherever they can.
Unfortunately, with council-run leisure centres falling victim to the cost of living crisis, we are headed in the wrong direction. Ordinary people can’t afford to be members of private gyms and those already on a slippery slope towards inactivity aren’t going to be naturally inclined to sign up to one, even if they have the means.
This isn’t about expensive infrastructure either. Yes, walkways help. The footpath abruptly ends on one side of the road near the industrial estate that I walk by, carrying on at the other side. And people are not going to walk their children to school if they don’t think it’s safe to do so.
But given how slow we are as a country building things, it would be wise to look at the easy gains. The Government could take inspiration from Joe Wicks, who became the nation’s PE teacher during the first pandemic.
Encouraging people to set up local walking groups. Or even exercise classes in the park.
As Professor Minxue Shen, of the Xiangya School of Public Health at Central South University in Hunan, says, “Adding short bursts of activity that make you slightly breathless into daily life, like taking the stairs quickly, walking fast between errands or playing actively with children, can make a real difference.
“Even 15 to 20 minutes per week of this kind of effort – just a few minutes a day – was linked to meaningful health benefits.”
The NHS recommends that adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week. But even that much time being too far a stretch for some, this study gives those people hope.
The decline of our high streets has often been lamented. If local authorities working with police forces can make them more welcoming places, then there’s no reason why they can’t be turned into a racetrack for an army of walkers wanting to improve their health.
The pandemic was an inflection point but our ways of thinking have not caught up with the changes that it brought. This summer should be the start of a shift in how we look at health and wellbeing. Otherwise the burden will only grow on the NHS.