On Healthy Living

PORTLAND, Ore. - The path to better health and lower blood pressure may be paved with cobblestones.

When people over 60 walked on smooth, rounded cobblestones for just a half-hour a day over four months, they significantly lowered their blood pressure and improved their balance, a study showed.

Behavioral researchers from the Oregon Research Institute investigated the health effects of cobblestones after observing people exercising and walking back and forth over traditional stone paths in China.

“We noticed in several cities we visited that people were walking on cobblestone paths, and people were standing on them, and sometimes dancing on them, doing weight-shifting,� said John Fisher, who led the study at the institute in Eugene.

“We thought if we could scientifically measure it, we could see if there were health benefits,� he said.

The full article can be read here. It seemed to me like an interesting read; I’ve often noticed that when feeling sore after having stood for a few hours, such as in one of my former jobs, walking on uneven paths (the center area in my town was full of these, actually), I would then feel better. Maybe it’s indeed worth being tried more often.

Yzabel wrote this on July 19th, 2005 and filed it under Healthy Living, Diet & Exercise, Health & Aging |