Issue #7 - How Beneficial Is Walking?

Welcome to Weekly.health’s seventh issue. Every week, we explore cutting-edge research, actionable advice, and science-backed nutrition insights to help you live longer and healthier.

Our aim is to help you live another 10 healthy years and cut your risk of age-related disease.

🗒️ In This Issue:

• 🔢 This week on Weekly.health

• 🔬 Longevity Spotlight: Exercise, Cognitive Health, & The Decline of Phospholipids

• 📚 Books We’re Reading Right Now

• 📈 Research Digest: What’s new in nutrition science

• 🛍️ Things You Might Like

• 🚶‍♀️ How Beneficial Is Walking?

• ❤️ Support Weekly.health: Help us keep the research flowing

• 📘 Glossary of Terms: Definitions for technical terms in this issue

🔢 This week on Weekly.health

We’re enjoying what could be the last sight of the sun here in the UK - with our caps on and faces plastered in SPF 50 to protect our skin from harmful UV rays, of course.

This week we’re including a couple of new sections;

• 📚 Books We’re Reading Right Now - we’ll share with you what we’re reading, or what we’ve read recently. No Lord Of The Rings here - it’s further reading on the topic of health and nutrition if this newsletter isn’t enough.

• 🛍️ Things You Might Like - this includes some of the suggested products and retailers we’ve mentioned in previous issues. These are usually referenced at the end of a review of evidence on a related topic, and so are only included when we trust that there’s a benefit to your health.

These sections will include links to products that may interest you. If you purchase, Weekly.health may be compensated with a small payment from the retailer, but this doesn’t affect the price you pay. Commissions we receive from these purchases, we hope, will allow us to cover the costs required to bring you this newsletter.

☕ Alternatively, you can support us to continue publishing Weekly.health with a coffee

🔬 Longevity Spotlight: Exercise, Cognitive Health, & The Decline of Phospholipids

The role of exercise in our health is backed by mountains of evidence. At any age, it improves key health markers - and the benefits might be just a brisk walk or short jog away.

This week’s review shows that in older adults, aerobic exercise can sharpen memory, improve verbal fluency, and boost brain blood flow. In fact, staying active later in life may be even more crucial than when we’re young.

We also review the decline of phospholipids - the building blocks of cell membranes - and how you can reverse this decline, potentially improving heart and brain health.

Exercise to keep your brain young: A meta-analysis of 57 trials found that regular exercise significantly boosts cognitive function in older adults - especially memory, verbal fluency, and mental flexibility - while improving blood flow to the brain. Increased cerebral artery velocity and lower heart rate were linked to sharper thinking. The takeaway? Consistent aerobic activity is a powerful, drug-free way to maintain brain health and slow cognitive decline as you age. (source)

Phospholipids decline with age, linked to heart and brain decline: 
A review of 32 studies (70,499 people) found that ageing is typically marked by lower levels of phosphatidylcholines (PCs), lysophosphatidylcholines (LPCs), and phosphatidylethanolamines (PEs), alongside a build-up of ceramides - linked to heart and brain decline. The pattern varies by sex, body weight, and even tissue type, making these lipids promising personalised biomarkers for tracking and supporting healthy ageing. (source)

What this means for you:

Improving these levels through diet may require some substantial dietary changes, and human trials on influencing them are currently limited. While more evidence is needed to fully understand the influence of diet in this area, here are a few suggestions to consider.

• Increase levels of phosphatidylcholine (PC), essential for cell membranes and brain health. Foods naturally rich in this include egg yolks, liver, soybean, salmon and other fatty fish, and peanuts.

• Increase levels of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), which may protect against oxidative stress and support healthy ageing. Sources of this include organ meats (liver, kidney, and heart), eggs, lean meats and fish (especially fatty fish like salmon), and whole grains.

• Increase levels of DHA, which supports brain structure and function. Sources include oily fish (salmon, mackerel, herring, sardines, and anchovies), omega-3 fortified eggs, omega-3 supplements (particularly high DHA variants), and algal oil (plant-based omega 3 oils).

• Increase levels of ether-linked phospholipids, which may protect nerves and brain cells from damage. Sources include scallops, mussels, clams, liver and other organ meats, and cold-water fish.

• Reduce ceramide build-up, which is linked to cardiovascular and cognitive decline. Maintain a healthy weight and insulin sensitivity (limit refined carbs and added sugars), eat antioxidant-rich foods (berries, leafy greens, and green tea for example), and include monounsaturated fats (olive oil, avocado, and nuts).

📚 Books We’re Reading Right Now

📈 Research Digest: What’s New in Nutrition Science

Here’s the best of recent nutrition research:

⏳ Intermittent Fasting Lowers Blood Pressure in Overweight Adults
A review of 15 studies (929 people) found intermittent fasting cut systolic blood pressure by ~4.4 mmHg and diastolic by ~2 mmHg, alongside improvements in weight, insulin resistance, and triglycerides. Mild side effects like irritability and nausea were mostly short-lived in the first phase. Benefits were strongest in people aged 45+, with obesity, or with high blood pressure, making IF a promising option for at-risk groups. (source)

🥗🏃 Mediterranean Diet + Exercise for Chronic Disease
A meta-analysis of 17 trials found that following a Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) with regular exercise led to small but meaningful improvements in body composition for adults with chronic diseases - about 2.5 kg weight loss, 1 kg/m² lower BMI, 3.5 cm smaller waist, and 102 g less harmful visceral fat. The diet alone offered modest but uninspiring results, so pairing olive oil, fish, and vegetables with consistent workouts is the winning combo. (source)

• The study showed that the Mediterranean diet alone mostly improved BMI, visceral fat, and, slightly, lean mass, but didn’t notably lower total weight.

• When pairing the MedDiet with regular exercise, reductions in waist size and belly fat were more notable.

🍈 Olive Oil Boost for Diabetes Control
In a 24-week trial, adults with type 2 diabetes who added 30 mL daily of phenolic-rich Galician (a regional Spanish variant) extra virgin olive oil (10 mL at each meal) saw significant drops in insulin resistance, and those with obesity had notable reductions in fasting glucose and HbA1c. Weight and BMI also fell slightly. The EVOO seemed especially helpful for women with obesity or high insulin resistance, but the sample sizes here were too small to be definitive. Overall, including high-phenolic EVOO into your diet could be a simple, tasty step for better blood sugar management. (source)

🛍️ Things You Might Like

Discover the products, services, and retailers we’ve mentioned in past Weekly Health issues, all in one place so you can explore at your own pace.

🚶‍♀️ How Beneficial Is Walking?

Your leisurely walk around town on a Saturday morning may actually be saving your life.

Recent research (source) dispelled that we need to reach 10,000 steps daily, showing that the figure we should be aiming for is closer to 7,000, with marginal additional benefits above that figure.

The meta-analysis of 31 studies found that 7,000 steps daily was associated with a 47% lower risk of all-cause mortality compared to just 2,000 steps daily.

The benefits for cardiovascular disease (CVD) increased up to around 7,800 steps, with a 25% lower risk. CVD mortality improved significantly by 5,500 steps daily, particularly in older adults.

Across all outcomes, 7,000 steps daily delivered consistent health improvements, showing risk reductions across heart disease (25%), dementia (38%), T2 diabetes (14%), falls (28%), cancer mortality (37%), and depression (22%).

The research did show that all-cause mortality risk continued to drop, with 10,000 steps daily being linked to a 10% lower risk than 7,000.

What about intensity?

The study looked at step cadence (steps per minute) to understand how the intensity of exercise influences these risk factors.

For all-cause mortality - the risk of death from all causes - a higher intensity was associated with a decreased risk. This suggests that a brisk walk is more beneficial than a leisurely walk, and running outperforms jogging - the faster you step, the bigger the benefit.

If you are already relatively healthy and without disease, lowering your risk of death from all causes should be a higher priority than any targeted risk reduction.

For other outcomes, the results were mixed or weak when cadence was considered. After adjusting for cadence, most benefits remained, suggesting that what matters most, for everything except for all-cause mortality, is the number of steps and not the speed at which you take them.

What does this mean for you?

The most important takeaway here is to take at least 7,000 steps daily and up to 10,000 per day, regardless of how fast you take them, if you are under 60. If you are above 60, 5,500 steps a day conferred benefits

Additional benefits to all-cause mortality are possible if you take your steps at a quicker pace, but the risk of certain diseases does not drop as step cadence increases.

If you are not relatively healthy or are experiencing symptoms of heart disease, dementia, T2 diabetes, cancer, or depression, the evidence supports that higher step counts may lower some risks, but step cadence may make no difference.

The key takeaway: Walking is extremely beneficial to your health, but you have to walk enough. The quicker you walk, the better, but your main objective should be to walk at least 7,000 steps daily, or 5,500 if you’re over 60.

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🙏 Thanks for Reading!

That’s the end of this issue of Weekly.health.

This newsletter is written by a small, independent team, led by James — who’s been following nutrition science for nearly 20 years and is now working towards a formal, industry-recognised qualification.

We’re based in England, so if you’re over the pond, you might notice a few strange spellings.

Our goal is to make cutting-edge, evidence-based nutrition advice simple, useful, and genuinely applicable to everyday life.

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See you next week!

📖 Glossary of Terms in This Issue (Alphabetical Order)

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