energy to spare. Walking also eases depression, lowers blood pressure, and helps prevent diabetes and heart disease
Walking can even help keep you alive. A study of more than 72,000 women, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that three or more hours of brisk walking each week cut the risk of fatal heart attacks and other heart trouble by 35 percent. Interestingly, women who engaged in more vigorous exercise, such as jogging or bicycling, weren’t any better off than the walkers.
If Shirley is exhibit A, her husband is exhibit B. Bill Poor had sky-high cholesterol and borderline diabetes before he started hitting the treadmill. Today, both his cholesterol and his blood sugar are well under control. Bill has help from the prescription drug Lipitor in keeping his cholesterol level down. But once he started walking, he was able to cut the dose.
Getting started
You already know how to walk. The question is, can you make walking part of your life? If you want to enjoy the full benefits of walking, it has to be an automatic part of your daily routine, Hill says. Not once a week. Not whenever you
