Thaindian News

New York, Jan 7 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Researchers have found a new way to predict how long an individual can live.

A new study has found that older people who walk much quicker are more likely to live longer than those that walk at a slow pace. The researchers however warned that it was not guaranteed that walking faster will extend your lifespan nor walking slower reduces it.

Rather, the researchers found that the most comfortable pace that a person finds himself or herself walking determines how long he or she is likely to live. They linked it to an individuals overall health statistics.

The new study a great potential because the researchers claim that by just examining how an individual walks, doctors will be able to determine the persons health needs and as such tailor their treatment to match the person’s needs.

The researchers studied data on almost 35,000 people that were aged about 65 years and up. The data collected were between six to 21 years and the data included the walking speed of each of the participants.

The researchers found after the studies that for every additional speed of 0.1 meters every second, a person’s likelihood to die in the next decade dropped by as much as 12 percent.

The findings of the study were published in the Tuesday edition of the journal, Journal of the American Medical Association.