Monday, February 14, 2011

A coordination test

Some years back, I read some study (because there are billions of them and if you believe one, another will come along to refute it) on the benefits of walking and talking to improve health and destress. But you have to meet a few requirements:

- You have to have someone to go for a walk with you.
- You have to be able to talk
- You have to be able to talk and walk at the same time
- You have to have a place to go for a walk.

The study I saw was on patients or caregivers of a bunch of sick people. There was one group who walked regularly, another who talked to their friends about their issues, and the third group who talked to their friends while they walked together. The third group was by far the healthiest. The idea was that while getting some exercise while they verbalized their stresses provided both a physical relaxation and a mental stress relief. (As far as I know, they did not test a group of people on their skills in walking and talking and chewing gum because that might have biased the sample to include only coordinated people.)

I prove my point in that there was just a NEW study on 'Healing through storytelling' where people with high blood pressure managed to reduce their blood pressure numbers just through story telling. So my question is what if they did storytelling and walking?

I don't do storytelling, I blog and then go for a walk or the gym. I am hoping for the same result - destress, reduced flab, lower blood pressure. I won't add chewing gum because I am not that coordinated.

1 comment:

Dee said...

Here's another coordination test for you: the hula is designed so your bottom half (from the waist down) does one thing while your upper body does another.

I tried to learn a hula dance while in Hawai'i last week. I did it, but I know it wasn't as beautiful as the hula performed by my hosts!

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