According to the authors of a new study, if a person is used to walking fast, then, according to the boldest calculations, he will be 16 years younger in biological age than someone who usually moves slowly.

Researchers from the University of Leicester and Leicester General Hospital (UK) examined data from 405,981 people stored at the British Biobank and confirmed that a faster walking pace, regardless of overall physical activity level, is associated with telomere length, the end sections of chromosomes considered a marker of biological age. The findings are published in the journal Communications Biology.

Walking is a simple and accessible form of exercise for people of all ages. Scientists have long claimed that walking is not only generally beneficial, but also reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality, and if one walks at a faster pace daily, one can even increase life expectancy. However, it has not been fully understood how walking speed is related to biological age, which reflects the degree of development and maturity of the body.

Telomeres are a complex of telomere DNA and associated proteins, they protect the ends of chromosomes from degradation, fusion and abnormal recombination of DNA strands. Telomeric regions gradually shorten with each cell division, contributing to replicative, or cellular aging (caused by the loss of the cell’s ability to divide). In addition, telomere shortening is regulated by factors such as oxidative stress and inflammation.

As suggested by previous studies, there is a link between high levels of physical activity and endurance and longer chromosome endings: therefore, physical activity via telomere lengthening helps to slow biological aging. But according to the Leicester scientists, most of the work on this topic that involved humans was small and did not fully address the causal relationship between simple types of exercise like walking and telomere length.

The average age of the British Biobank participants, whose genetic information formed the basis of the new study, was 56.5 years old, had a body mass index of 27.2, 54% were female and 95% were white. About half of the participants (212,303, 52.3%) reported walking “at a medium pace,” 6.6% (26,835) walked slowly, and 41.1% (166,843) walked at a fast pace. Compared with those who were not in a hurry, people in groups one and three were slightly younger, more likely to have never smoked and less likely to have taken cholesterol or blood pressure lowering medications, less likely to have chronic illnesses or to be restricted in movement. Those who were “slow” were more likely to be obese and prone to drinking alcohol.

“Those who walked at a medium or fast pace had significantly longer telomeres than those who walked slowly,” the researchers wrote. A secondary analysis, in which data from an accelerometer were taken into account, showed that if one did most of the daily physical activity at a higher intensity, the end sections of the chromosomes would be longer. The relationship persisted after other factors were taken into account.

“We found evidence that walking pace has a causal relationship with telomere length. Depending on the simulated difference in walking pace (from slow to medium pace or from medium to fast), there was an increase in the standard deviation of telomere length of 0.192 and 0.226 before and after accounting for body mass index, respectively,” the researchers add. They calculate that there is a 16-year difference in biological age between fast- and slow-moving individuals, although the adjusted analysis gives a difference of two years.

In the future, the researchers plan to confirm whether behavioral interventions aimed at increasing walking speed or increasing the intensity of physical activity can slow telomere degradation.