Doctors Prescribe The Magic Pill To Joyful Living & Why My Steps Target Is Key To A Reset

GPs in Shetland are prescribing listening to birdsong, picking up driftwood on the beach and walking as solutions to modern world maladies like anxiety and melancholy. 

For me, daily walking is the key to an active life. If I walk, I do more stuff. When I don’t walk, I slump. There’s an evolutionary underpinning to this. Humans colonised the planet using bipedal power. We walked out of Africa, using our free hands to gather food along the way, and we conquered the earth. 

I’ve been heavily influenced by Shane O’Mara’s book “In praise of walking”. Shane makes the case that it is walking – bipedalism – that makes us a unique species. 

We’ve all been imprisoned by Lockdown Three. Long periods of immobility lead to sarcopenia (muscle loss), changes in our blood pressure and metabolic rate. 

The benefits of walking for our physical health are pretty well known. Yet the impact of walking on our brains, our minds, is also significant. Our brain waves change when we walkabout. Different electrical impulses leave us more alert, even changing our breathing patterns. Shane O’Mara uses Rosseau to explain the impact. The French philosopher said:

“I can only meditate when I am walking. When I stop, I cease to think; my mind only works with my legs.”

O’Mara cites evidence that walking stimulates neuro-plasticity, defending us from dementia and ageing. The relationship between good cognitive health and walking is so strong that O’Mara claims that “you don’t get old until you stop walking, and you don’t stop walking because you’re old.”

This week I’ve reset my daily and weekly activity. At the core is a commitment to 10,000 steps a day. So far, so good. 

And as I’ve been on my walks – often engaging in walking zoom calls, I’ve started to list the benefits of the activity. 

Here’s what’s improved this week: 

Sleep is more profound and longer

I feel more creative; brighter with more ideas

I’m in the moment more, taking in nature

When I’ve completed walks, I’ve been more motivated to do more structured exercise

I’ve finished more mundane tasks that are usually easy to put off

I’ve been more disciplined with my nutrition – no cheese snacking!

OK, you can’t hang all these improvements on walking, but at the very least, there’s a placebo effect. To me, that’s as good as causation. 

Movement is medicine. It’s free, and it doesn’t require a clinician to provide it. 

Reading

OK, I know I can get a bit obsessional, but two AMAZING books examine the impact of increasingly sedentary lifestyles on our health. 

Vybarr Cregan-Reid’s “Primate Change” makes the case that as we have changed the way we live in the world using labour saving tools and technology, so to have those arrangements physically changed us. So when our ancestors were chasing down animals for food, they required dense bones. By the time we had arranged our affairs such that we sit on office chairs and living room sofas, our bone density had reduced. It’s a stark warning about how inactivity is killing us. Peter Walker’s “The Miracle Pill’ explores how we can bring more regular movement into our Daily Lives. It’s so well researched that I’ve invited Peter onto a future episode of ‘Persons of Interest’.

Persons of Interest

Talking of AMAZING. Eliot Higgins and Karen Pollock outlined the extraordinary work they do as the boss of Belingcat and the Holocaust Educational Trust. Each operates in different areas of life, but both speak truth to power with humour, humility, clarity and aplomb. I really admire both of them. Have a listen and tell me what you think - Listen Now.