We Walk Less; Spend More on Drugs
According to a study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, Americans take fewer steps per day than people in Switzerland, Australia, and Japan. We barely broke the sedentary mark of 5000 steps per day at 5117.
Australia and Switzerland were both over 9000 per day and Japan over 7000 steps per day.
Lifestyle is a center of the issue. Where we live/work, the kind of work we do, what we do when we get home all feeds into the sedentary lifestyle that is America. And, the detrimental effects of this lifestyle are not revealed for many years. Most people gain weight slowly, year by year until one day, at the age of 60, they realize they're 30-40 lbs too heavy. And by then, you have a lot of work to do.
In a different but related article in the NY Times, our use of prescription drugs has more than doubled in the last ten years in terms of expenditures. And for people older than 60, about 33 percent were taking five drugs.
What to do?
To start with, walk. But obviously if it was that simple more people would be doing it. Pedometers help some people; people who are motivated by data. Here's the pedometer I've used. It can slide into a pocket out of sight and it's quite accurate. Wear it for a few days and see what you actually take in steps per day. Then, set a goal for increasing your step count 10%. Eventually you'll start moving things around in your life to make room for a walk in the morning or evening or maybe over lunch.
Walking won't make you fit by itself but it helps. It can lower your blood pressure, help control weight, and even your cholesterol.
Oh, and make sure you try to increase your speed while you'e at it. People who walk slowly have a 44% increased risk of dying of cardiovascular disease