【素材】Walking: The 'Wonder Drug',澳洲世纪方舟留学微信公众号文章

Walking: The 'Wonder Drug'

If you want to get healthy or stay healthy, there is one easy activity to add to your day – walking.

get healthy / stay healthy 变得健康，保持健康

"Walking is the closest thing we have to a wonder drug," says Thomas Friedman. Friedman is the director of the Centersfor Disease Control and Prevention in the United States.

wonder drug 有效的药（神奇药）

And he is not alone in considering walking a great exercise.

consider walking a great exercise 认为走路是很好的运动

Health experts at the Mayo Clinic, the American Heart Association, the Arthritis Foundation, Harvard Medical School and many otherhealth research groups agree.

You may think that simply taking a walk is not enough to make a big difference. You might think that you need do something strenuous like running to stay healthy.

simply taking a walk 简单去散个步

is enough to make a big difference 足够有一个大的改变

simply taking a walk is enough to make a big difference 只是简单去散个步就足够有一个大个改变

do something strenuous /ˈstrenjuəs/ 剧烈的，艰苦的needing a lot of effort or strength

do something strenuous like running 做一些剧烈的运动比如跑步

Well, a new study says that is not true. It finds that walking may be as good for us as running.

Running is a high-impact activity and can be hard on the body. So, many people cannot run. Walking, it seems, has all of the advantages and none of the disadvantages of running.

running is a high-impact activity 跑步是一个有很大影响的运动

The American Heart Association explains the findings on its website. Walking quickly, or briskly, can lower your risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.

walking quickly, walking briskly 快步行走

high blood pressure 高血压

high cholesterol 胆固醇

diabetes 糖尿病

lower the risk of something 降低什么什么的风险

Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratoryin California did the study. Over a six-year period, they studied about 33,000 runners in the National Runners' Health Study and just over 15,000 walkers in the National Walkers' Health Study.

The researchers found that the same energy used for brisk walking and vigorous running "resulted in similar reductions in risk for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, and possibly coronary heart disease over the study's six years."

brisk walking 快速走

vigorous running, 剧烈的跑步

vigorous 剧烈的using a lot of energy and strength or determination

coronary heart disease 冠心病

coronary 冠状动脉的relating to the heart

The study also found that the more people walked or ran each week, the more their health benefits increased.

health benefits increase 增加健康

health benefits 健康的好处

Walking is easy, fun and accessible

Dr. Russell Pate is a professor of exercise science at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. He is also a volunteer at the American Heart Association. He commented on the study on the association's website.

Pate says the health benefits of walking are not "all or nothing." If your goal is to walk for 30 minutes a day, you can split that into three 10 minute walks.

health benefits of walking 跑步的健康好处

Walking, he adds, has the lowest drop out rate of any exercise. People who start walking regularly usually stick with it.

start walking regularly 开始规律走路

stick with it 坚持下去

Pate says what many other health experts say: Walking is one of the easiest and safest exercises a person can do. With walking, he says, there is no learning curve. That means you do not need to learn a lot to get results.

learning curve 学习曲线

Walking requires no special skills or equipment. You can do it anywhere. It fits easily into your daily schedule. You can walk at work. You can park farther away from a store entrance. You can take the stairs instead of the elevator.

special skills 特殊技能

special equipment 特殊装备

fit into your daily schedule easily 很容易融入日常安排

Walking is a great exercise for beginners. If you are out of shape or getting back into shape after an illness or accident, walking is perfect. You can do a little at a time, or as we like to say, take "babysteps."

out of shape 身材走样

get back into shape 恢复体型

So, walking lowers your risk of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. But many other studies have found that walking benefits the body and mind in other ways.

lower the risk of 降低风险

walking benefits the body and mind 走路对身心有好处

For example, regular brisk walking can help you:

• Keep a healthy weight. 保持健康体重

• Improve your mood. Walking releases natural pain killing chemicals in the body. A study at California State University, Long Beach showed that the more steps people took during the day, the better their moods were.

improve your mood 改善情绪

release chemicals in the body 缓解身体内的化学物质

• Sharpens your mind. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, studied 6,000 women ages 65 and older. They found that age-related memory loss was lower for those who walked more.

sharpen your mind 使你的思维变得敏锐

age-related memory loss 与年龄相关的记忆丧失

• Keep your joints healthy. The Arthritis Foundation (U.S.) explains on its website that most of the material that makesup our joints has no direct blood supply. Our joints get "nutrition from joint fluid that circulates as we move." When you walk, your joints get this "life-giving fluid," which means your joints stay stronger.

joints stay stronger 关节更强壮

nutrition 营养

joint fluid 关节液

circulate 循环

• Improve your creativity. A 2014 study by Stanford University found that walking, indoors or outdoors, improved the ability to think creatively and solve problems.

think creatively 创造性思考

solve problems 解决问题

Best of all, you can easily change where, when and how you walk. You can walk with your friends, co-workers, family or your dog. Or you can walk alone.

walk with your friends, co-workers, family or your dog 和朋友，同事，家人或者狗一起散步