Study shows that walking is key to older blokes avoiding strokes

According to research part-funded by the British Heart Foundation (press release here), and published in Stroke, the journal of the American Heart Association, over-65s who walk for an hour a day reduce their chance of a stroke by a third, while for men walking more than 22 hours a week, the risk is two thirds lower. Given that, in the UK around 152,000 people a year have strokes, which can be fatal, this is dramatic stuff.

The study (which appears to be about blokes, rather than folks) found that it was better to walk further rather  than quicker. The 3,435 healthy men aged 60 to 80 were followed in the study for 10 years. They were divided into groups based on how much, on average, each man walked per week. Men who walked eight to fourteen hours per week had approximately a third lower risk of stroke than men who walked less than three hours per week. So no need for power walks, just get out there. And the easiest way to do it? Don’t take the car, take a walk.