走路慢的人可能更容易老!

Being a slow walker doesn't just signify you enjoy a leisurely stroll. According to new research, walking with a slow gait could be a symptom of significant deficits in physical and cognitive health.

走路慢不僅僅代表你喜歡悠閒漫步。新的研究顯示走路慢可能暗示你身體和認知健康方面出現嚴重缺陷。

New findings from a longitudinal study of just over 900 New Zealanders that began back in the 1970s has found that people in their 40s who walk with a slow gait are more likely to show signs of accelerated biological ageing and compromised brain integrity.

20世紀70年代就開始了針對900多個新西蘭人進行的縱向研究，新的研究結果發現40多歲時走路慢的人更可能出現生物老化加速和大腦完整性受損的跡象。

"The thing that's really striking is that this is in 45-year-old people, not the geriatric patients who are usually assessed with such measures," says biomedical researcher Line J.H. Rasmussen from Duke University.

杜克大學的生物醫學研究員Line J.H. Rasmussen說：“真正引人注意的是這是在45歲的人羣中出現的問題，而不是通常用這些方法進行評估的老年患者。”

Rasmussen and fellow researchers examined participants from the Dunedin Study, an exceptionally long longitudinal health study that began almost five decades ago with a cohort of over 1,000 three-year-olds.

Rasmussen和其他研究人員檢查了達尼丁研究的參與者，這一研究是大約50年前開始的耗時特別長的縱向健康研究，研究對象是1000多名三歲的兒童。

In new research assessing the health of 904 of the remaining participants at the age of 45, the team found walking speed at mid-life seems to offer a unique window into life-long ageing processes that go back all the way to childhood.

新研究評估了904位健在的參與者45歲時的健康狀況，研究團隊發現中年時的走路速度好像提供了一個獨特的窗口，讓我們得以瞭解從孩童時期就開始的、伴隨我們一生的衰老過程。

"This study covered the period from the preschool years to midlife, and found that a slow walk is a problem sign decades before old age," says Duke psychologist and neuroscientist Terrie E. Moffitt.

杜克大學的心理學家和神經科學家Terrie E. Moffitt說：“這項研究涵蓋了學前到中年的階段，發現走路慢是一個在步入老年前幾十年就出現的有問題的跡象。”