Just because many of us have been walking for most of our lives doesn’t mean we’re doing it in the best way. So what is the healthiest way to walk? I spoke to Annabel Streets, author of 52 Ways to Walk: The Surprising Science of Walking for Wellness and Joy, One Week at a Time.
There are many areas of health – mental health, emotional health, gut health, etc. Can walking really help them all?
I think so! The air you want to walk in should be full of negative ions, which happens where water is crashing. Waterfalls are brilliant. One study compared different groups of care workers. One group walked near waterfalls, one stayed inside, and another walked in the mountains. The waterfall group had far less psychological distress, improved lung capacity and much higher levels of an antibody called secretory immunoglobulin, which is found in the mucosal lining of our mouth and nose, and in our gut.
