Posted on 07/28/2022 9:33:59 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
Walking for exercise at a pace that induced pain or discomfort improved walking ability among people with peripheral artery disease, or PAD, according to new research.
The condition occurs when the arteries that transport blood from the heart throughout the body narrow, reducing blood and oxygen flow. It usually affects the legs and feet causing symptoms while walking, such as cramping, weakness, fatigue, aching and pain or discomfort that subside within 10 minutes of rest.
At six months, participants whose walking pace induced leg pain or discomfort walked 11 feet per minute faster, and at 12 months, they walked more than 16 feet per minute faster than participants whose walking pace did not induce leg pain or discomfort.
At 12 months, people who walked for exercise with leg pain or discomfort scored almost 1 point higher on the sum of the three leg function tests (the short physical performance battery), out of a total of 13 points (0-12), compared to people who walked at a comfortable pace with no leg pain. For those walking for exercise at a comfortable pace, there was no improvement in walking speed at six months or 12 months compared to non-exercisers.
"We were surprised by the results because walking for exercise at a pace that induces pain in the legs among people with PAD has been thought to be associated with damage to leg muscles," said senior study author Mary M. McDermott, M.D. "Based on these results, clinicians should advise patients to walk for exercise at a pace that induces leg discomfort, instead of at a comfortable pace without pain."
"This finding is consistent with "no pain, no gain" with regard to walking exercise in PAD," McDermott said.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
Intriguing. Once again, many thanks for your kind efforts.
the article wasn’t clear on something- although the participants can walk slightly faster- are they still experiencing pain the whole way? Of what benefit is it if they are? Just a quicker pace with the same levels of pain? Or perhaps slightly less pain for a gain of a couple dozen feet depending on distance walked?
I could see it if workings through the pain resulted eventually in being able to walk the same distances with less pain overall- but the article didn’t mention that- it just basically mentioned they can walk the same distance slightly faster (but assuredly with the same amount of pain?)
bkmk
“Hey, I’m walking here!”
But don’t get blisters. They can turn into ulcers due to poor blood supply. They take a long time to heal, expensively.
https://www.healthline.com/health/arterial-vs-venous-ulcers
Arterial and Venous Ulcers: What’s the Difference?
I got this from the study:
Together, these results showed that home‐based walking exercise at a pace that does not induce ischemic leg symptoms was significantly worse than walking exercise that induces ischemic leg symptoms for outcomes of walking speed and the SPPB. Results also showed that walking for exercise at a pace without ischemic leg symptoms was significantly worse than the control group for the outcome of usual‐paced walking velocity at 12‐month follow‐up.
It appears not pushing into pain causes a steady walking speed decline after just 12 months (seemingly due to normal walkers receiving pain at their prior speeds).
Intermittent claudication. Rest for a few minutes and the blood circulates enough to make the pain go away.
This is about peripheral artery disease | atheroscerosis
One doesn’t have to have diabetes to have this.
True, but I guess what I’m not getting is, well, I guess walking faster would help with health overall regardless of pain, but the average is just like 13 feet per second faster, which if a person walked exactly 10 minutes, woild be just an extra 130 feet, or roughly only 40,extra yards of walking. Doesn’t seem like a huge benefit over walking without having to experience the pain.
I’m progably missing something- maybe it’s accumulative where 40,yards per day, over 10 days, that would be 400 yards extra, 100,days, 4000 and so on.
The pain is excruciating, and I’m not sure the benefit of an extra 40 yards per walk (per 10 minute walk that is), would warrant the extra pain of pushing the body to pain. I’ve tried walking through the pain, and it gets so bad it’s, ike walking on two wooden legs as the calf muscles tighten up, won’t relax, and thr burnin lactic acid like pain sets in and won’t quit till one stops.
I dunno, maybe every little extra bit, like the extra 40 yards helps overall health. I just know He pain it causes, and know how debilitating it is. I can actually walk further if I don’t walk fast enough to cause the burning pain in legs. So to,me the gain of 40 yards vs walking further without pain might offset each other benefit wise?
The alternative is that everyone who didn’t have pain had worse speed than when the study started, meaning, they deteriorated.
Ah ok, that makes sense then- my brain missed that part of the article.
Hmmm I have PAD. Mostly both ankles. If I accidentally move a foot a certain way, while in bed, it will hook inward and I have to stand on it and wait for it to ‘literally’ jerk back into position.
I still say the person at the vein center that used the blood pressure on my ankles, damaged them even more. Talk about pain. The procedure didn’t help much on my left leg in 2019. I haven’t committed to the right one.
Does anyone here have the same problem with the what I call the ‘foot hook’?
My husband’s vascular surgeon told him today that there is a huge benefit to walking to the point of pain: pain encourages the growth of collateral arteries that travel around blockages.
thnaks for that info- good to know about the formation of arteries aroudn blockage-
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