Research shows the people with
arthritis can benefit greatly from low-impact exercise like walking, but two
out of three arthritic adults don’t regularly go for walks, according to the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
MedPage Today
reported May 3 that 53 percent of people with arthritis told pollsters that
they don’t take walks at all, and another 13.1 percent said they walked less
than 90 minutes total per week. Even so, walking was the most common type of
physical activity reported by people with arthritis, with 5.3 percent
saying the walked for 90 to 120 minutes, 5.6 percent saying they walked
for 120 to 150 minutes, and 23.2 percent reporting walking more than 150
minutes weekly.
The Arthritis Foundation’s Walk With Ease program can help people with arthritis
get more active; it entails walking three times a week for 30 to 40 minutes
over a period of 6 weeks. “Walking is a low-impact, acceptable, convenient,
inexpensive, feasible, and proven physical activity intervention that can help
reduce arthritis pain, improve function, and move persons with arthritis along
the continuum of physical activity,” according to the CDC.
The research was published in the Morbidity and
Mortality Weekly Report.
