What's the scientific basis for the saying "Take a hundred steps after a meal and live to ninety-nine"?

Bread is the pillar of life. Three meals a day is an important part of daily life. After supper walk a mile. This is a health preserving proverb handed down from China. To put it bluntly, what it wants to say is that walking at a fixed time after meals every day is good for your health.

So, does this sentence make sense?

What should ordinary people do?

Another sentence often heard in life is that you can't exercise after meals, let alone exercise vigorously. It was explained that the blood flow required for gastrointestinal peristalsis increased significantly after eating. At this time, if you choose exercise such as walking, it will lead to the distribution of blood to muscles, which will lead to indigestion. There's another way of saying it. Getting up and exercising after meals will lead to instability of the stomach full of food, and even gastroptosis, which will cause disorder of the digestive ability of the stomach.

The above statement seems reasonable. However, a large number of medical studies and reports agree that walking after meals can promote digestion and help control blood sugar. In other words, you should get up and take a walk after dinner and other simple activities. In 2008, scholars from the Affiliated Hospital of Heidelberg University in Germany found through experiments that walking 15 minutes after meals can help digestion and lower blood sugar levels. They measured the gastric emptying of 10 healthy men. It was found that walking after meals accelerated the emptying of stomach contents. In other words, walking after meals is more helpful for digestion.

Last year, scholars from the University of Otago in New Zealand found that walking for ten minutes after three meals every day can significantly improve the blood sugar control level of diabetic patients. Moreover, this way is better than a single 30-minute walk every day. Research data show that the former can reduce postprandial blood sugar by 22%, while the latter can only reduce blood sugar 12%.

Walking after dinner is a good thing, but you need to pay attention to skills. Undoubtedly, it is not recommended to take strenuous exercise immediately after a meal, which will only lead to food "tumbling over the river" in the stomach, causing stomach pain or vomiting, including what people often say.

How to take a walk after dinner and what is the right thing to do?

First of all, you can rest in the same place after dinner 10 to 15 minutes, then get up and start walking. In other words, when the food enters the stomach, you should give him a short rest time to let the digestive juice come into close contact with the food.

Secondly, how to walk correctly? You can walk at normal speed. In layman's terms, this is a "stroll". To put it mildly, it can be a "walk around". During walking, try not to go up and down the stairs, and it is best to cross the road quickly.

Different people should be treated differently when walking after meals. For example, for patients with coronary heart disease, hypertension, cerebral arteriosclerosis and stomach surgery, attention should be paid to the amount of activity after meals. Some people will aggravate dizziness when they exercise after meals, causing abdominal fullness and discomfort, and even postural hypotension and arrhythmia. In addition, in different seasons, we should also pay attention to the form of walking after meals. For example, when the temperature in winter is low and the temperature difference between indoor and outdoor dining environment is large, don't take a walk under the stimulation of cold wind; In summer, you usually sweat more after meals, so it is not advisable to walk rashly in a hot environment to avoid sweating too much and even heatstroke.

Although it is good to "walk a hundred paces after a meal", no one can guarantee whether you can "live to ninety-nine". There are many factors that affect everyone's life span. Howard Friedman, an American psychology professor, summed up the key factors affecting life span, including interpersonal relationship, personality characteristics, occupation, details of life, getting rid of bad habits, interacting with healthy people and so on. Break it down, taking a hundred steps after a meal can only be regarded as a very small aspect of life details.

It is worth noting that many people are prone to drowsiness after meals. Some people interpret carbohydrates as causing a sharp rise in blood sugar, which makes people sleepy. A common explanation abroad is that sleepiness is actually caused by postprandial hypotension. Prevention is the key to postprandial hypotension. One solution is to drink soup or water before eating. Secondly, eat less and less carbohydrates.

At present, a common life phenomenon is that office workers who sit in front of computers for a long time will soon return to the sit-in mode even after meals. In this era when people often sit in chairs for hours without moving, it is very valuable to take a hundred steps after meals. For people who usually lack exercise or have a bad appetite, walk a hundred steps after meals. What's more, it is not difficult to form this habit.

Authors: Department of Anesthesiology, Changhai Hospital, Second Military Medical University.

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