What your walk says about your health

Walking and healthy ageing

Walking depends on an enormous volume of communication between the brain and the muscles of the arms, chest, back, abdomen, pelvis and legs.

Although it may appear simple, walking is actually a highly complex activity. The speed and fluidity of your gait may reveal important information about your health and the way you are ageing.

As we get older, muscles decline in mass, strength and quality. Known as sarcopenia, this process starts from around our forties.

At the same time, the nervous system experiences "atrophy": nerves throughout the body become less effective and their numbers fall.

Between the ages of 20 and 60, it is estimated that 0.1% of neurons, or nerve cells, are lost every year. This rate of loss then accelerates.

By the age of 90, the brain may have lost 150 g of tissue compared with its weight at 50.

Research has found that walking speed at 45 is a strong indicator of physical and mental health in later life. A clear reduction in walking speed is also apparent after the age of 60.

A slower, less fluid gait can be an early sign of neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disrupts signals sent from the brain to the musculoskeletal system. As a result, a person's gait may become slower, less even and more unsteady. These changes can be slight, but may still be identified during the disease's early stages.

Cognitive decline is associated with a notably reduced stride length, while the time needed to complete each stride becomes longer.

Foot drop and tripping

The complicated mechanics of walking also help prevent us from catching our own feet. Muscles at the front of the shin lift the foot as it moves forwards. For some people, this action starts to fail, leading to trips.

This is called "foot drop": the foot hangs down and the toes strike the ground, creating a risk of tripping. It can result from nerve damage caused by diabetes, or from sitting cross-legged and holding certain yoga poses for long periods.

Narrowing of the arteries

Pain in the gluteal muscles, along the back of the leg or even in the calf that occurs during walking but goes away when you stop may indicate peripheral arterial disease.

Pain that appears with movement and disappears during rest is known as claudication. It occurs when the arteries supplying the legs have narrowed. Walking increases the amount of oxygen required by the leg muscles.

Because narrowed arteries cannot deliver enough blood to meet this oxygen requirement, the muscles become anaerobic, meaning they lack oxygen, and release lactic acid. Lactic acid produces the cramping sensation. Once you stop moving, however, the muscles require very little oxygen and the pain eases.

Smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes are all risk factors for peripheral artery disease. A family history of vascular disease also raises the risk.

Staggering

An unsteady gait accompanied by balance difficulties is commonly linked to excessive alcohol intake, although it may also point to vitamin B12 deficiency.

In adults, symptoms can take months or even years to develop. In children, they may emerge much sooner because the nervous system is still maturing and vitamin B12 has a crucial role in protecting it from disorders.

Fortunately, vitamin B12 deficiency is generally treated easily with injections, which most people tolerate well. In some cases, symptoms can be eliminated by including B12-rich foods in the diet, such as meat, fish, eggs and dairy products.

Problems affecting the inner ear, including labyrinthitis, may also cause temporary balance and gait difficulties. They usually improve without treatment.

An inner-ear infection causes unusual movement of fluid within this area of the ear. This makes nerve signals travelling from the ear to the brain harder to interpret, meaning the body cannot fully combine them with visual and positional information.

Ageing inevitably makes walking less smooth and less effortless. But if you are tripping, staggering or falling more often, or if walking has become difficult over a short period, it is worth speaking to your doctor.

Adam Taylor, Professor and Director of the Clinical Anatomy Learning Centre, Lancaster University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.