Real Health Podcast: The surprising science of walking for wellness and joy

Walking is one of the oldest past times known to humans. A problem seems to be halved by a nice walk and some fresh air, but what is the science behind it?

What are the best ways to walk? Is it better to walk by the sea or in forests? And what is the science behind walking?

On the Real Health podcast this week, I was joined by author of ‘52 ways to walk: The surprising science of walking for wellness and joy, one week at a time’, Annabel Streets.

Annabel grew up in rural Wales with two parents that didn’t drive so her main means of getting to places was on foot. However, when she became an adult her life became car-centric and she began to get very bad back pain. The author said that “no amount of physiotherapy or osteopathy helped, nothing seemed to be able to solve it. And eventually, having spent quite a lot of money on all these professionals, I discovered that actually walking and moving seemed to really do the trick.”

I asked Annabel what is happening biologically when we walk: “as soon as we start walking, we start to produce this amazing cascade of biochemicals. We have these things called endocannabinoids, which obviously sounds like cannabis, and it works like that actually, that's why we go for a walk. We feel happier and calmer because we're full of endocannabinoids. The brain produces something called BNA, brain derived neurotrophic factor, which actually is really good for the brain. It's like a sort of Miracle-Gro for our brain cells,” she said.

The writer spoke about the different varieties of walking and the popularity of backwards walking which has recently become popular in Japan. Backwards walking can be helpful for lower back pain.

You can listen to the full episode on The Irish Independent or wherever you get your podcasts.