How fast people
walk in their 40s is a sign of how much their brains, as well as their
bodies, are ageing, scientists have suggested.
Using a simple test of gait speed, researchers were able to measure the ageing process.
Not only were slower walkers' bodies ageing more quickly - their faces looked older and they had smaller brains.
The international team said the findings were an "amazing surprise".
Doctors
often measure gait speed to gauge overall health, particularly in the
over-65s, because it is a good indicator of muscle strength, lung
function, balance, spine strength and eyesight.
Slower walking speeds in old age have also been linked to a higher risk of dementia and decline.
'Problem sign'
In
this study, of 1,000 people in New Zealand - born in the 1970s and
followed to the age of 45 - the walking speed test was used much
earlier, on adults in mid-life.
The study participants also had
physical tests, brain function tests and brain scans, and during their
childhood they had had cognitive tests every couple of years.
"This
study found that a slow walk is a problem sign decades before old age,"
said Prof Terrie E Moffitt, lead author from King's College London and
Duke University in the US.
Even at the age of 45, there was a wide
variation in walking speeds with the fastest moving at over 2m/s at top
speed (without running).
In general, the slower walkers tended to
show signs of "accelerated ageing" with their lungs, teeth and immune
systems in worse shape than those who walked faster.
Image copyrightDuke UniversityImage caption
Researchers tested the walking speed of participants on an 8m-long pad
The more unexpected finding was that brain scans showed the slower walkers were more likely to have older-looking brains too.
And
the researchers found they were able to predict the walking speed of
45-year-olds using the results of intelligence, language and motor
skills tests from when they were three.
The children who grew up
to be the slowest walkers (with a mean gait of 1.2m/s) had, on average,
an IQ 12 points lower than those who were the fastest walkers (1.75m/s)
40 years later.
Lifestyle link
The international team of researchers, writing in JAMA Network Open,
said the differences in health and IQ could be due to lifestyle choices
or a reflection of some people having better health at the start of
life.
But they suggest there are already signs in early life of who is going to fare better in health terms in later life.
The researchers said measuring walking speed at a younger age could be a way of testing treatments to slow human ageing.
A number of treatments, from low-calorie diets to taking the drug metformin, are currently being investigated.
It
would also be an early indicator of brain and body health so people can
make changes to their lifestyle while still young and healthy, the
researchers said.
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