Walk your way to health: October 15 – World Walking Day

As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), physical activity is “any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure.” It is one of the fundamental functional stimuli to the body, which, if regularly applied, reduces the risk of developing a series of chronic, primarily cardiovascular, diseases, certain types of cancer, non-insulin-dependent diabetes, and osteoporosis. Regular physical activity stimulates glucose metabolism, reduces body fat, benefits body weight regulation, lowers the blood pressure, as well as reduces the loss of bone mass. Physical activity helps to reduce stress and improves sleep quality, which is an important part of good health and life quality in general (1-4). A significant increase in the prevalence of chronic non-communicable diseases (CNCD) and outbreaks of overweight and obesity illustrate an imbalance between life style and the biological need for physical activity. Physical inactivity has thus developed into one of the major risk factors for population health and development of CNCDs. It is present in many countries and associated with 3.2 million death cases, globally involving 670 000 persons younger than 60 years, and some 30% of diabetes and ischemic heart disease cases (4,5). Epidemiological studies have also shown that physical inactivity has economical consequences, producing a major burden for the health budget. Due to all this, the WHO stresses physical activity as a vitally important segment in the CNCD prevention and recommends regular moderate exercise of minimum duration of 150 minutes weekly for healthy adults aged 18-64 years (4-6).