9 ms·

In Praise of Walking

182 points by haasted 7y ago

fragsworth 7y ago
I worry sometimes about the actual effects of exercise on our health, and the legitimacy of these studies. It's impossible to detach these studies from the confounding factors - if your health declines (for any reason), you will stop exercising. I feel like we have to take any studies that use correlations with a grain of salt. How do you study the effects of exercise when there are such massive confounding variables?
- nemonemo 7y ago
  "Health" is a loosely defined word and there are many goals and metrics. We can definitely study some metrics of "health" and study them with high confidence if the goal is well defined and it can be monitored with fine granularity. For example, if many people exercise and then the blood glucose drops for the next day, we can see its good effect, and probably it's easier to figure out what hormonal mechanism or neural pathway affect them. If the goal is higher-level health issue, like longevity, it is trickier because of, as you said, many confounding issues. I suspect there would be cyclic causality between exercise and longevity/overall health, and it would be quite difficult to separate the cause and the effect. IMO, maybe the best way is, making educated guess based on the studies with clearer metrics.
- zingermc 7y ago
  Not a real researcher, but perhaps randomized trials could help?
- kpU8efre7r 7y ago
  Same with diet studies which is why mechanisms inside the body are important to study and identify.
  - closeparen 7y ago
    Seems like you could A/B test diet for people getting all their food from an institutional cafeteria. Students, soldiers, prisoners, etc.
- novok 7y ago
  You seperate out the variables and study people who can exercise, but don’t?
  - barry-cotter 7y ago
    People who exercise are different from those who can but don’t, just as those who smoke are different from those who could, but don’t. People who exercise almost certainly have higher energy levels to start with and are less likely to have lingering minor injuries, just as you’d expect smokers and former smokers to exhibit higher levels of addictive behaviour like high coffee or cola consumption than never smokers. Epidemiology and nutrition have massive problems teasing out causation because people who X are different from people who don’t X in many more ways than in just that difference. The health benefits of wine over beer probably reflect socioeconomic differences in consumption for just one example.
    - lm28469 7y ago
      If you think like that you quickly stop looking at studies, it's impossible to control for every variables, even for the most simple phenomenons. We do our best and most of the time it's enough.
- throwaway3627 7y ago
  For every lifestyle decision, there are always potential risks and potential benefits. For example, people who run excessively tend to lose fast-twitch/bulk muscle mass and wear their hips, knees and ankles faster than most people. For example, one of the worst things you could do to your body would be to repeatedly run fast, downhill while letting your feet slap the ground. And, you're never going to be able to measure all of the pluses and minuses intellectually or quantitively, which is why these choices tend to be primarily qualitatively-based with some quantified-self bits on the margins.
  - justinator 7y ago
    For example, people who run excessively tend to lose fast-twitch/bulk muscle mass and wear their hips, knees and ankles faster than most people. Pay for the exam, I'll debunk this one right away. And I believe the whole, "Running is bad for your knees" argument has been debunked, https://omrf.org/2016/09/12/is-running-bad-for-your-knees-surprisingly-science-says-no/ https://omrf.org/2016/09/12/is-running-bad-for-your-knees-su... For example, one of the worst things you could do to your body would be to repeatedly run fast, downhill while letting your feet slap the ground. I think falling off a cliff repeatedly would be a slight bit worse. Or taking up a meth hobby. Or other things that seems fairly obvious. I do a lot of trail running on steep trails (or no trails!) My knees are fine. As mentioned, lots of worse things to do to your body. Here's another one: take up skiing.
    - rimliu 7y ago
      Not the most unbiased source, I'd say. And no link to the research.
      - nradov 7y ago
        Here's a link to research. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5179322/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5179322/
        rimliu 7y ago
- wiremine 7y ago
  I'm not a researcher, but it seems your logic goes the other way, too: if you walk and your health improves, then there seems to be a positive correlation between health and walking. And, I think we can control for the health decline. I.e., Stopping exercise because you have cancer vs. stopping because you have broken leg. And even then you can control for changing up the type of exercise. My wife broke her foot last year, and shifted from running 20 miles a week to doing "sit and bit fit" exercise. She actually improved her cardio capacity. Finally, I think the logical conclusion of your argument is: exercise has no impact (or maybe even a negative impact) on health. Studies and every day experience don't seem to bear this out.
- voidhorse 7y ago
  Well, it's entirely anecdotal, but there's a book devoted to the walking habits of many prestigious philosophers and other artists and thinkers: https://www.versobooks.com/books/1865-a-philosophy-of-walking https://www.versobooks.com/books/1865-a-philosophy-of-walkin.... Sure, any conclusions you can draw from this don't have the rigor of those drawn from carefully accumulated scientific observations and controlled experiments...but it's also possible to be such a stingy devotee of scientism that it paralyzes you and divorces you from truths that are otherwise intuitive and simply a part of being human. If you try to incorporate exercise into your daily routine you'll also have a direct experience of its benefits. We don't necessarily need science for everything and we also don't need to establish proofs for everything. A clouded, unflagging allegiance to the scientific method is what distinguishes a dogmatic acolyte from a rational thinker (just as it does the religious fanatic and the rational practitioner)--it's just as important to circumscribe the space of the actual utility of science just as much as it is to stand firmly by its methodological principles.
- moonhorse 7y ago
  I exercise a lot. But I do it mostly for the intrinsic fun part. I doubt it has a big impact on our health and longevity. Once a research says regular medium intensity exercise could potentially prolong our lives by 3 to 5 years. But that is it. If you exercise for 50 years, 3 times a week, and 1 hour per session plus 30 minutes preparation, that is actually 12150 hours in total and translates into about 2 years of productive life. So its ROI from a longevity perspective is really not as high as some of us think.
  - btrettel 7y ago
    The ROI argument is one reason why I commute by bike. 7 days a week no problem, no real preparation time. Takes up time I would otherwise be wasting sitting in a car or public transit. Last week according to my log I rode for 213 minutes. That's a bit more than 30 minutes per day.
    - koyote 7y ago
      I have done the same and it's great. The main issue is that I used to spend the commute reading books. So I have basically exchanged "mental" excericse with physical excercise. I feel that listening to an audiobook while cycling is a bit too dangerous for an urban commute like mine.
      - padraic7a 7y ago
        I really sympathise with this. I changed job about two yeas ago and switched from an hour long train ride to a 30 minute cycyle. The shorter commute is great, and the in built exercise is great, but man I really miss that chance to read, or just relax.
        Freak_NL 7y ago
        Why not get into the habit of reading in bed for a while before sleep? It helps the brain wind down, and is easy to maintain as a habit.
      - 7y ago
- WhompingWindows 7y ago
  You're just asking how do we control for confounding factors in epidemiologic research. There are many ways, included adjusted logistic regression modeling, propensity scores, randomized clinical trials, cohort studies, on and on. I know it may seem like there's too many studies, but you shouldn't worry that there aren't extremely intelligent statisticians and epidemiologists working on these very issues - I collaborate with them daily :)
- epiphanitus 7y ago
  I hate how hard it is to sort out truth from fiction when it comes to new science regarding health and especially dieting. One study says one thing, another says another. How does anyone sort out fact from fiction on these things if they've never been to medical school?
Vekz 7y ago
The relationship between physical activity and neuroplasticity touched on in this article is also deeply discussed in the book: Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain https://www.amazon.com/Spark-Revolutionary-Science-Exercise-Brain/dp/0316113514/ https://www.amazon.com/Spark-Revolutionary-Science-Exercise-...
- rocgf 7y ago
  Read this quite recently, indeed a very good read.
colonel_exploit 7y ago
I'm all for walking... Just be mindful to cover up if you take a stroll on your lunch break like I often do. UV damage is scary.
- siphon22 7y ago
  >UV damage is scary. Can you expand on that? Curious to know through your experience.
  - p1esk 7y ago
    Skin cancer.
  - brandonmenc 7y ago
    And for the vain, aging - wrinkles, spots, dryness, etc.
  - WhompingWindows 7y ago
    I have fair skin in New England, use facial spf 35 sunscreen daily from May-September, and use spf 70 whenever I'm outside for longer than 15+ minutes. It's important as skin cancer is just bound to happen if you don't use it, as a fair skinned person. Not doing so would mean pieces of face/ear expensively sliced off when you're older. Both my parents grew up w/o sunscreen and got intensive burns, both of them got skin cancer on their face. But even before old age and cancer, your skin will be healthier and look younger for much longer if you use sunscreen daily, use a hat, avoid 10am-2pm exposure, etc. The last one is interesting because during midday, the sun is directly overhead, meaning there is much less atmosphere between you and it, so even less UV is blocked.
  - colonel_exploit 7y ago
    My mom had skin cancer on her forehead - it was removed, and she's fine. Plus I'm bald. Like shaved-head bald since the age of 18 (mid-thirties now) - I feel like I'm more cognizant of the visible skin damage on older bald people's heads, and wow it looks bad, from both a health and appearance standpoint. Hence UV damage being top of mind for me.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
markbnj 7y ago
My personal experience with walking began six years ago. I weighed 270 pounds, felt tired and lethargic all the time, huffed and puffed any time I had to climb stairs etc. I decided to make a change, dropped sugar from my many daily coffees, and started walking two miles every night. I mapped out a route around our house and for the first five years I took our dogs with me. Where we live is hilly and initially each night felt like a struggle and I didn't want to do it much of the time. That sort of perversely made it a point of pride to do it regardless, and we went even on nights when it was drizzling or very cold. Six years later the transformation has been pretty satisfying. Down 60 pounds, so much more energy it's hard to describe the difference. I make the whole walk now in 30 minutes easily maintaining four mph up hills and down, and I could hold a conversation while doing it and not sound out of breath. It is now a well-established habit and on those nights when I can't go I feel like a slug :).
- agumonkey 7y ago
  This is the kind of things that makes me believe that part of the potential collapse will yield very good things. Bad diet, low activity .. all these are super detrimental and are double penalty both financially and existentially. I'm betting a pinky that we'll all be happier doing "more" simple physical things.
  - defterGoose 7y ago
    | I'm betting a pinky that we'll all be happier doing "more" simple physical things. This factors so heavily into my worldview right now; that our society is broken in some very strange ways. A lot of people will admonish you about "romanticizing the past", but I truly feel that maybe if people had a little more real, hard labor in their lives, everyone would be happier, healthier, and humbler. I'm reminded of the Calvin and Hobbes trope about "building character".
  - dTal 7y ago
    I assume by "collapse" you mean economic and social breakdown provoked by climate change and other chaotic forces. In which case most people will die of starvation, and the world will become very nasty indeed. I agree that modern society is very sick, but I don't think it's productive to look forward to the day when it all falls through. I do not aspire to die of starvation, or (if I survive) to live in feudal society of medieval technology. No matter how much exercise and fresh air I get. We need to think of a way to heal ourselves without losing the social and technological progress we have made.
DoreenMichele 7y ago
January 2001, ten weeks of chronic sinusitis turned to pneumonia. This was followed by sleeping 18-20 hours/day for about 3.5 months, plus twice-weekly doctors appointments while they called me crazy for fearing I might die while they ran more tests, stumped as to what was wrong with me. In May, a sweat chloride test came back positive. The verdict: atypical cystic fibrosis. I had already stopped being largely bedridden the month before in April. Many years of rehabilitation would follow. Walking played a very large role in my recovery. At one point, I was homeless and my daily routine involved walking six to eight hours per day for some months. The lymphatic system is a key part of this. Lymphatic fluid is basically your blood stripped of red and white blood cells. While in your blood, it gets moved around by your heart. But it doesn't stay in your blood vessels. Like water in the Earth's ecosystem, it isn't confined to the creeks and rivers of blood vessels. It seeps out into your tissues like groundwater, becoming interstitial fluid. It carries nutrients with it to nourish your tissues as it flows out. It carries wastes with it as it flows back into your blood stream. While out in your tissues, it is beyond the reach of your pumping heart. Its return trip is typically sluggish. Unless you are in motion. Then your skeletal muscles fill in where your heart can't reach. Interstitial fluid returns to your blood at several times it's normal rate when you are active. When, in a word, you exercise. Walking helps your body take out the trash, a necessary element of the healing process largely overlooked by our current medical mental models where we think to add inputs in the form of drugs but mostly don't talk about throughputs.
- krustyburger 7y ago
  This is very interesting to me. An Aunt of mine is a professional Rolfer, and from what I understand the Rolf system heavily emphasizes the existence of non-blood fluid in the body and the importance of moving/loosening it. Perhaps there’s more to it than I had thought.
  - DoreenMichele 7y ago
    Massage and warm salt baths seem to both be helpful and can be especially useful where exercise is not an option.
- 7y ago
panarky 7y ago
In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman says that walking slowly helps with thinking, while walking fast "brings about a sharp deterioration in my ability to think coherently". https://books.google.com/books?id=ZuKTvERuPG8C&q=walking#v=snippet&q=walking&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=ZuKTvERuPG8C&q=walking#v=s...
- baroffoos 7y ago
  I can relate to this. While cycling I think about stuff and the intensity really determines how focused I can be thinking. During really high intensity cycling my thinking is usually reduced to just a looping line from a song or "go go go" I was considering if a modification to a standing desk to make it a cycling desk would be a good idea but now I think there is just no point because you will be half assing both exercise and focus. Really what you want to do is do some high intensity effort while doing nothing else and then low intensity stuff while working. A walking desk might still be a good idea if you set it to 2-3km/h. I find standing to be a little uncomfortable for long periods but walking is fine.
  - vinceguidry 7y ago
    The issue with a walking desk is that the treadmill only goes one speed, you have to manually adjust it, it doesn't just let you walk naturally. It just wound up being distracting. It's not like the experience of walking and thinking at all. I would pay good money for one that did.
    - gniv 7y ago
      Look into non-motorized treadmills. The curved ones are popular now, they are easier to use.
  - ck425 7y ago
    I also suspect that part of the benefit is the changing environment. The article talks about the internal GPS and how training it via walking trains the brain in general. If you're moving on the spot, I imagine the internal GPS won't get worked nearly as much.
myt6fore 7y ago
Couple of suggestions for prospective walkers (or rollers) out there. Successful walking is about fine-tuning yourself to your environment. In order to do so you need couple basics straightened out. Do yourself a favor and get a flat footwear. Zero-drop shoes will help body realign your lumbar spine and neck (heels push the butt outwards, forcing the spine to compensate). Enthusiastic walking, like running, is a repetitive stress activity so you want your joints in their evolved alignment to avoid fatigue or even damage seeping in. Note, if you choose minimal (or the nowadays called barefoot) footwear- go gradually, allow your foot to build it's strength back up. Be aurally aware of your environment. Apple earbuds (wired or wireless) are very good in this regard, as these'll let you hear stuff around you. Bone-conducting headphones are also a good option.
- mytailorisrich 7y ago
  > Be aurally aware of your environment. Apple earbuds (wired or wireless) are very good in this regard, as these'll let you hear stuff around you. Bone-conducting headphones are also a good option. Or, you know, just focus on one thing at a time and don't listen to music/take a call while walking.
tluyben2 7y ago
Personally I am a lot more productive during + after walking in nature. It saves me a lot of time if I walk through a forest before or during writing code. Better code, less mistakes, less refactoring etc etc. The effect (again personally) is far less if not nature but a city for instance.
- agumonkey 7y ago
  Last week I alternated reading programming books and coding with jogging sessions. Every time I hit a mental block or just coding fatigue. I'd leave and run a bit. It wasn't super effective but overall it avoided stress and gave room for free mind wandering and new ideas.
  - tluyben2 7y ago
    That's why I went from short jobs to long walks; I can pretty much do most my work (70%) while walking (in forests; not in the city; I would get literally hit by a truck). It seems it does not give me the same fatigue is setting and taking pauses in the office.
    - agumonkey 7y ago
      > from short jobs to long walks I fail to parse that
      - tluyben2 7y ago
        Sorry, jogs... I was actually walking when talking to my phone to post that :) Unlike software, it did not generate a syntax error.
        agumonkey 7y ago
        haha, I thought about that but really wasn't sure
    - akegalj 7y ago
BrissyCoder 7y ago
One more reason Lime Scooters suck.
mytailorisrich 7y ago
I walk 1+ hour per day to commute to and from work (+train). It's free, great exercise, and on busy days it's a great feeling to overtake all those people trapped in traffic ;)
rafaelvasco 7y ago
I run from home to the subway station and from the station to home everyday. I can't imagine my life without it anymore.
awillen 7y ago
Ever since phones started having pedometers, I've made it a habit to walk around the room while watching TV. During football season, I was often sedentary all day Sunday and am now instead walking for miles. One of the simplest things I've done that has a very positive effect on my health. That said, when I watch the games in bars on Sunday, people think I'm a bit strange...
- skinnymuch 7y ago
  Yes I pace with most things now. My friends have gotten used to it but anyone else gets nervous and anxious with my constant pacing. I lost the multi-year habit where I averaged about 120K steps/week until quite recently. Now I’m getting back to closing in on that number. Last few weeks have been 110K steps/week.

182 points by haasted 7y ago

I worry sometimes about the actual effects of exercise on our health, and the legitimacy of these studies. It's impossible to detach these studies from the confounding factors - if your health declines (for any reason), you will stop exercising. I feel like we have to take any studies that use correlations with a grain of salt. How do you study the effects of exercise when there are such massive confounding variables?

nemonemo 7y ago
"Health" is a loosely defined word and there are many goals and metrics. We can definitely study some metrics of "health" and study them with high confidence if the goal is well defined and it can be monitored with fine granularity. For example, if many people exercise and then the blood glucose drops for the next day, we can see its good effect, and probably it's easier to figure out what hormonal mechanism or neural pathway affect them. If the goal is higher-level health issue, like longevity, it is trickier because of, as you said, many confounding issues. I suspect there would be cyclic causality between exercise and longevity/overall health, and it would be quite difficult to separate the cause and the effect. IMO, maybe the best way is, making educated guess based on the studies with clearer metrics.
zingermc 7y ago
Not a real researcher, but perhaps randomized trials could help?
kpU8efre7r 7y ago
Same with diet studies which is why mechanisms inside the body are important to study and identify.
- closeparen 7y ago
  Seems like you could A/B test diet for people getting all their food from an institutional cafeteria. Students, soldiers, prisoners, etc.
novok 7y ago
You seperate out the variables and study people who can exercise, but don’t?
- barry-cotter 7y ago
  People who exercise are different from those who can but don’t, just as those who smoke are different from those who could, but don’t. People who exercise almost certainly have higher energy levels to start with and are less likely to have lingering minor injuries, just as you’d expect smokers and former smokers to exhibit higher levels of addictive behaviour like high coffee or cola consumption than never smokers. Epidemiology and nutrition have massive problems teasing out causation because people who X are different from people who don’t X in many more ways than in just that difference. The health benefits of wine over beer probably reflect socioeconomic differences in consumption for just one example.
  - lm28469 7y ago
    If you think like that you quickly stop looking at studies, it's impossible to control for every variables, even for the most simple phenomenons. We do our best and most of the time it's enough.
throwaway3627 7y ago
For every lifestyle decision, there are always potential risks and potential benefits. For example, people who run excessively tend to lose fast-twitch/bulk muscle mass and wear their hips, knees and ankles faster than most people. For example, one of the worst things you could do to your body would be to repeatedly run fast, downhill while letting your feet slap the ground. And, you're never going to be able to measure all of the pluses and minuses intellectually or quantitively, which is why these choices tend to be primarily qualitatively-based with some quantified-self bits on the margins.
- justinator 7y ago
  For example, people who run excessively tend to lose fast-twitch/bulk muscle mass and wear their hips, knees and ankles faster than most people. Pay for the exam, I'll debunk this one right away. And I believe the whole, "Running is bad for your knees" argument has been debunked, https://omrf.org/2016/09/12/is-running-bad-for-your-knees-surprisingly-science-says-no/ https://omrf.org/2016/09/12/is-running-bad-for-your-knees-su... For example, one of the worst things you could do to your body would be to repeatedly run fast, downhill while letting your feet slap the ground. I think falling off a cliff repeatedly would be a slight bit worse. Or taking up a meth hobby. Or other things that seems fairly obvious. I do a lot of trail running on steep trails (or no trails!) My knees are fine. As mentioned, lots of worse things to do to your body. Here's another one: take up skiing.
  - rimliu 7y ago
    Not the most unbiased source, I'd say. And no link to the research.
    - nradov 7y ago
      Here's a link to research. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5179322/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5179322/
      - rimliu 7y ago
wiremine 7y ago
I'm not a researcher, but it seems your logic goes the other way, too: if you walk and your health improves, then there seems to be a positive correlation between health and walking. And, I think we can control for the health decline. I.e., Stopping exercise because you have cancer vs. stopping because you have broken leg. And even then you can control for changing up the type of exercise. My wife broke her foot last year, and shifted from running 20 miles a week to doing "sit and bit fit" exercise. She actually improved her cardio capacity. Finally, I think the logical conclusion of your argument is: exercise has no impact (or maybe even a negative impact) on health. Studies and every day experience don't seem to bear this out.
voidhorse 7y ago
Well, it's entirely anecdotal, but there's a book devoted to the walking habits of many prestigious philosophers and other artists and thinkers: https://www.versobooks.com/books/1865-a-philosophy-of-walking https://www.versobooks.com/books/1865-a-philosophy-of-walkin.... Sure, any conclusions you can draw from this don't have the rigor of those drawn from carefully accumulated scientific observations and controlled experiments...but it's also possible to be such a stingy devotee of scientism that it paralyzes you and divorces you from truths that are otherwise intuitive and simply a part of being human. If you try to incorporate exercise into your daily routine you'll also have a direct experience of its benefits. We don't necessarily need science for everything and we also don't need to establish proofs for everything. A clouded, unflagging allegiance to the scientific method is what distinguishes a dogmatic acolyte from a rational thinker (just as it does the religious fanatic and the rational practitioner)--it's just as important to circumscribe the space of the actual utility of science just as much as it is to stand firmly by its methodological principles.
moonhorse 7y ago
I exercise a lot. But I do it mostly for the intrinsic fun part. I doubt it has a big impact on our health and longevity. Once a research says regular medium intensity exercise could potentially prolong our lives by 3 to 5 years. But that is it. If you exercise for 50 years, 3 times a week, and 1 hour per session plus 30 minutes preparation, that is actually 12150 hours in total and translates into about 2 years of productive life. So its ROI from a longevity perspective is really not as high as some of us think.
- btrettel 7y ago
  The ROI argument is one reason why I commute by bike. 7 days a week no problem, no real preparation time. Takes up time I would otherwise be wasting sitting in a car or public transit. Last week according to my log I rode for 213 minutes. That's a bit more than 30 minutes per day.
  - koyote 7y ago
    I have done the same and it's great. The main issue is that I used to spend the commute reading books. So I have basically exchanged "mental" excericse with physical excercise. I feel that listening to an audiobook while cycling is a bit too dangerous for an urban commute like mine.
    - padraic7a 7y ago
      I really sympathise with this. I changed job about two yeas ago and switched from an hour long train ride to a 30 minute cycyle. The shorter commute is great, and the in built exercise is great, but man I really miss that chance to read, or just relax.
      - Freak_NL 7y ago
        Why not get into the habit of reading in bed for a while before sleep? It helps the brain wind down, and is easy to maintain as a habit.
    - 7y ago
WhompingWindows 7y ago
You're just asking how do we control for confounding factors in epidemiologic research. There are many ways, included adjusted logistic regression modeling, propensity scores, randomized clinical trials, cohort studies, on and on. I know it may seem like there's too many studies, but you shouldn't worry that there aren't extremely intelligent statisticians and epidemiologists working on these very issues - I collaborate with them daily :)
epiphanitus 7y ago
I hate how hard it is to sort out truth from fiction when it comes to new science regarding health and especially dieting. One study says one thing, another says another. How does anyone sort out fact from fiction on these things if they've never been to medical school?

Vekz 7y ago

The relationship between physical activity and neuroplasticity touched on in this article is also deeply discussed in the book: Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain https://www.amazon.com/Spark-Revolutionary-Science-Exercise-Brain/dp/0316113514/ https://www.amazon.com/Spark-Revolutionary-Science-Exercise-...

rocgf 7y ago
Read this quite recently, indeed a very good read.

colonel_exploit 7y ago

I'm all for walking... Just be mindful to cover up if you take a stroll on your lunch break like I often do. UV damage is scary.

siphon22 7y ago
>UV damage is scary. Can you expand on that? Curious to know through your experience.
- p1esk 7y ago
  Skin cancer.
- brandonmenc 7y ago
  And for the vain, aging - wrinkles, spots, dryness, etc.
- WhompingWindows 7y ago
  I have fair skin in New England, use facial spf 35 sunscreen daily from May-September, and use spf 70 whenever I'm outside for longer than 15+ minutes. It's important as skin cancer is just bound to happen if you don't use it, as a fair skinned person. Not doing so would mean pieces of face/ear expensively sliced off when you're older. Both my parents grew up w/o sunscreen and got intensive burns, both of them got skin cancer on their face. But even before old age and cancer, your skin will be healthier and look younger for much longer if you use sunscreen daily, use a hat, avoid 10am-2pm exposure, etc. The last one is interesting because during midday, the sun is directly overhead, meaning there is much less atmosphere between you and it, so even less UV is blocked.
- colonel_exploit 7y ago
  My mom had skin cancer on her forehead - it was removed, and she's fine. Plus I'm bald. Like shaved-head bald since the age of 18 (mid-thirties now) - I feel like I'm more cognizant of the visible skin damage on older bald people's heads, and wow it looks bad, from both a health and appearance standpoint. Hence UV damage being top of mind for me.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

markbnj 7y ago

My personal experience with walking began six years ago. I weighed 270 pounds, felt tired and lethargic all the time, huffed and puffed any time I had to climb stairs etc. I decided to make a change, dropped sugar from my many daily coffees, and started walking two miles every night. I mapped out a route around our house and for the first five years I took our dogs with me. Where we live is hilly and initially each night felt like a struggle and I didn't want to do it much of the time. That sort of perversely made it a point of pride to do it regardless, and we went even on nights when it was drizzling or very cold. Six years later the transformation has been pretty satisfying. Down 60 pounds, so much more energy it's hard to describe the difference. I make the whole walk now in 30 minutes easily maintaining four mph up hills and down, and I could hold a conversation while doing it and not sound out of breath. It is now a well-established habit and on those nights when I can't go I feel like a slug :).

agumonkey 7y ago
This is the kind of things that makes me believe that part of the potential collapse will yield very good things. Bad diet, low activity .. all these are super detrimental and are double penalty both financially and existentially. I'm betting a pinky that we'll all be happier doing "more" simple physical things.
- defterGoose 7y ago
  | I'm betting a pinky that we'll all be happier doing "more" simple physical things. This factors so heavily into my worldview right now; that our society is broken in some very strange ways. A lot of people will admonish you about "romanticizing the past", but I truly feel that maybe if people had a little more real, hard labor in their lives, everyone would be happier, healthier, and humbler. I'm reminded of the Calvin and Hobbes trope about "building character".
- dTal 7y ago
  I assume by "collapse" you mean economic and social breakdown provoked by climate change and other chaotic forces. In which case most people will die of starvation, and the world will become very nasty indeed. I agree that modern society is very sick, but I don't think it's productive to look forward to the day when it all falls through. I do not aspire to die of starvation, or (if I survive) to live in feudal society of medieval technology. No matter how much exercise and fresh air I get. We need to think of a way to heal ourselves without losing the social and technological progress we have made.

DoreenMichele 7y ago

January 2001, ten weeks of chronic sinusitis turned to pneumonia. This was followed by sleeping 18-20 hours/day for about 3.5 months, plus twice-weekly doctors appointments while they called me crazy for fearing I might die while they ran more tests, stumped as to what was wrong with me. In May, a sweat chloride test came back positive. The verdict: atypical cystic fibrosis. I had already stopped being largely bedridden the month before in April. Many years of rehabilitation would follow. Walking played a very large role in my recovery. At one point, I was homeless and my daily routine involved walking six to eight hours per day for some months. The lymphatic system is a key part of this. Lymphatic fluid is basically your blood stripped of red and white blood cells. While in your blood, it gets moved around by your heart. But it doesn't stay in your blood vessels. Like water in the Earth's ecosystem, it isn't confined to the creeks and rivers of blood vessels. It seeps out into your tissues like groundwater, becoming interstitial fluid. It carries nutrients with it to nourish your tissues as it flows out. It carries wastes with it as it flows back into your blood stream. While out in your tissues, it is beyond the reach of your pumping heart. Its return trip is typically sluggish. Unless you are in motion. Then your skeletal muscles fill in where your heart can't reach. Interstitial fluid returns to your blood at several times it's normal rate when you are active. When, in a word, you exercise. Walking helps your body take out the trash, a necessary element of the healing process largely overlooked by our current medical mental models where we think to add inputs in the form of drugs but mostly don't talk about throughputs.

krustyburger 7y ago
This is very interesting to me. An Aunt of mine is a professional Rolfer, and from what I understand the Rolf system heavily emphasizes the existence of non-blood fluid in the body and the importance of moving/loosening it. Perhaps there’s more to it than I had thought.
- DoreenMichele 7y ago
  Massage and warm salt baths seem to both be helpful and can be especially useful where exercise is not an option.
7y ago

panarky 7y ago

In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman says that walking slowly helps with thinking, while walking fast "brings about a sharp deterioration in my ability to think coherently". https://books.google.com/books?id=ZuKTvERuPG8C&q=walking#v=snippet&q=walking&f=false https://books.google.com/books?id=ZuKTvERuPG8C&q=walking#v=s...

baroffoos 7y ago
I can relate to this. While cycling I think about stuff and the intensity really determines how focused I can be thinking. During really high intensity cycling my thinking is usually reduced to just a looping line from a song or "go go go" I was considering if a modification to a standing desk to make it a cycling desk would be a good idea but now I think there is just no point because you will be half assing both exercise and focus. Really what you want to do is do some high intensity effort while doing nothing else and then low intensity stuff while working. A walking desk might still be a good idea if you set it to 2-3km/h. I find standing to be a little uncomfortable for long periods but walking is fine.
- vinceguidry 7y ago
  The issue with a walking desk is that the treadmill only goes one speed, you have to manually adjust it, it doesn't just let you walk naturally. It just wound up being distracting. It's not like the experience of walking and thinking at all. I would pay good money for one that did.
  - gniv 7y ago
    Look into non-motorized treadmills. The curved ones are popular now, they are easier to use.
- ck425 7y ago
  I also suspect that part of the benefit is the changing environment. The article talks about the internal GPS and how training it via walking trains the brain in general. If you're moving on the spot, I imagine the internal GPS won't get worked nearly as much.

myt6fore 7y ago

Couple of suggestions for prospective walkers (or rollers) out there. Successful walking is about fine-tuning yourself to your environment. In order to do so you need couple basics straightened out. Do yourself a favor and get a flat footwear. Zero-drop shoes will help body realign your lumbar spine and neck (heels push the butt outwards, forcing the spine to compensate). Enthusiastic walking, like running, is a repetitive stress activity so you want your joints in their evolved alignment to avoid fatigue or even damage seeping in. Note, if you choose minimal (or the nowadays called barefoot) footwear- go gradually, allow your foot to build it's strength back up. Be aurally aware of your environment. Apple earbuds (wired or wireless) are very good in this regard, as these'll let you hear stuff around you. Bone-conducting headphones are also a good option.

mytailorisrich 7y ago
> Be aurally aware of your environment. Apple earbuds (wired or wireless) are very good in this regard, as these'll let you hear stuff around you. Bone-conducting headphones are also a good option. Or, you know, just focus on one thing at a time and don't listen to music/take a call while walking.

tluyben2 7y ago

Personally I am a lot more productive during + after walking in nature. It saves me a lot of time if I walk through a forest before or during writing code. Better code, less mistakes, less refactoring etc etc. The effect (again personally) is far less if not nature but a city for instance.

agumonkey 7y ago
Last week I alternated reading programming books and coding with jogging sessions. Every time I hit a mental block or just coding fatigue. I'd leave and run a bit. It wasn't super effective but overall it avoided stress and gave room for free mind wandering and new ideas.
- tluyben2 7y ago
  That's why I went from short jobs to long walks; I can pretty much do most my work (70%) while walking (in forests; not in the city; I would get literally hit by a truck). It seems it does not give me the same fatigue is setting and taking pauses in the office.
  - agumonkey 7y ago
    > from short jobs to long walks I fail to parse that
    - tluyben2 7y ago
      Sorry, jogs... I was actually walking when talking to my phone to post that :) Unlike software, it did not generate a syntax error.
      - agumonkey 7y ago
        haha, I thought about that but really wasn't sure
  - akegalj 7y ago

BrissyCoder 7y ago

One more reason Lime Scooters suck.

mytailorisrich 7y ago

I walk 1+ hour per day to commute to and from work (+train). It's free, great exercise, and on busy days it's a great feeling to overtake all those people trapped in traffic ;)

rafaelvasco 7y ago

I run from home to the subway station and from the station to home everyday. I can't imagine my life without it anymore.

awillen 7y ago

Ever since phones started having pedometers, I've made it a habit to walk around the room while watching TV. During football season, I was often sedentary all day Sunday and am now instead walking for miles. One of the simplest things I've done that has a very positive effect on my health. That said, when I watch the games in bars on Sunday, people think I'm a bit strange...

skinnymuch 7y ago
Yes I pace with most things now. My friends have gotten used to it but anyone else gets nervous and anxious with my constant pacing. I lost the multi-year habit where I averaged about 120K steps/week until quite recently. Now I’m getting back to closing in on that number. Last few weeks have been 110K steps/week.