Walking, strokes, movement.

Fact:
Mini-strokes affect up to half of the population over forty, but usually go unnoticed until damage builds.
Physical and mental health. Just put on your shoes and get moving. It is often that simple. My parents are both 81. They speed walk 4 miles a day and they are on zero medications. They eat exceptionally clean, zero alcohol, lots of vitamins.
Get your parents, friends, patients walking. It is a start, a big start, and for many, most of all they need.

From the article: “Despite what we know about exercise, for whatever reason, people still have the thought that it can’t work. Maybe they think it’s too easy,” says Liu-Ambrose.
Rather than put on a pair of runners and head outside, they’re willing to pay for online cognitive training, for instance, even though there’s less evidence that it works, she adds.

http://www.vancouversun.com/touch/story.html?id=11237102

Optimal walking speed

How fast you should move in order to improve your health?
In many studies, the more intense runners are healthier than those who walk or run more moderately. However, this is not the entire picture, there are studies that say moderation is wiser. Confusingly, and perhaps unfortunately there is literature that will support whatever makes you happy.
From the linked blog:
“This risk of death is lower even with a very minimal energy expenditure. The lowest-energy-expenditure group in each study is walking at about 3 mph for 20 to 40 minutes per day. In other words, a mile or two of walking. In exchange, their risk of death goes down by 10 percent.
"Walking a bit farther — say, 2 to 3 miles at 3 mph — gets you an additional death reduction of about 30 percent. But walking more than that, or more than an hour a day at this speed, is no better.”
“If we take this research at face value, we learn a few things. First, some exercise reduces your risk of death. Second, the optimal walking/jogging exercise is light to moderate jogging. The optimal speed is between 5 and 7 mph, and if you do 25 minutes about three times a week, you’re all set. Nothing in the data suggests that running more — farther, or faster — will do more to lower your risk of death.”

What do you think ? Agree /Disagree?

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/whats-the-optimal-speed-for-exercise/

Higher Level Gait Disorders

How deep are you willing to take your gait understanding ?

“In conclusion, these data suggest that the gait and balance deficits in higher level gait disorders (HLGD) mainly result from the lesion or dysfunction of the network linking the primary motor cortex and the mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR), brain regions known to be involved in the control of gait and balance, whereas cognitive and ‘appendicular’ hypokinetic-rigid signs mainly result from deep white matter lesions (DWML) that could be responsible for a dysfunction of the frontal cortico-basal ganglia loops.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24202784
J Neurol. 2014 Jan;261(1):196-206. doi: 10.1007/s00415-013-7174-x. Epub 2013 Nov 8.
High-level gait and balance disorders in the elderly: a midbrain disease?
Demain A

The effect of lower extremity fatigue on shock attenuation during single-leg landing.

Thank goodness the body can compensate. Here is a perfect example of this discussed in this study.
“ … it has been shown that a fatigued muscle decreases the body’s ability to attenuate shock from running. The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of lower extremity fatigue on shock attenuation and joint mechanics during a single-leg drop landing.”
This study suggests that as one part fatigued, the joint and muscle strategies elsewhere in the limb made up for it.
“Hip and knee flexion increased and ankle plantarflexion decreased at touchdown with fatigue. Hip joint work increased and ankle work decreased.” The results suggested that the lower extremity is able to adapt to fatigue though altering kinematics at impact and redistributing work to larger proximal muscles.

The effect of lower extremity fatigue on shock attenuation during single-leg landing. Clin Biomech (Bristol, Avon). 2006 Dec;21(10):1090-7. Epub 2006 Sep 1.
Coventry E1, O'Connor KM, Hart BA, Earl JE, Ebersole KT.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16949185