Ambling along at a leisurely pace might seem like an ideal anti-stress strategy, but if slow-and-steady is your usual speed, it could be an indication that you’re aging more quickly than someone with a faster gait.

慢悠悠地走路似乎是一种理想的抗压策略，但如果你一直都缓慢平稳地走路，这可能向你发出了一个信号：你会比走路快的人衰老得更快。

A research published in JAMA Network Open used data from a long-term study collecting health information on over 900 New Zealanders over a 40-year period that started when the participants were around 3 years old. They assessed gait speed, focusing on the slowest 20 percent and fastest 20 percent throughout three walking conditions: at their usual gait, at their normal pace while reciting alternate letters of the alphabet out loud, and at their maximum gait speed.

《美国医学会杂志网络公开版》上发布了一项研究，研究数据来自对900多名新西兰人进行的长达40年的健康追踪调查，参试者自3岁起就接受了测试。研究人员评估了参试者的步行速度，重点关注步速最慢和最快的20%参试者的三项行走速度：一般步行速度、一边大声背诵字母表中的间隔字母一边正常行走的速度，以及最大步行速度。

The slowest walkers averaged 1.21 meters per second (m/s), or roughly 2.7 miles per hour, throughout all three of the conditions, while the fastest walkers averaged 1.75 m/s, or 3.9 miles per hour.

在以上三种状态下，步速最慢的参试者的平均速度为每秒1.21米，或约每小时2.7英里，而步速最快的参试者为每秒1.75米，或每小时3.9英里。

They also had 19 biomarkers assessed, including body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio, cholesterol levels, white blood cell count, gum health, and cardiorespiratory fitness. Finally, they had neuroimaging tests to look at age-related features of the brain.

研究人员还评估了19项生理指标，包括体重指数(BMI)、腰臀比、胆固醇水平、白细胞计数、牙龈健康以及心肺功能等等。最后，他们还利用神经影像测试评估了参试者与年龄相关的大脑特征。

Researchers discovered that those with the slowest walking speed showed accelerated aging across the various biomarkers, as well as a reduction in total brain volume, showing that walking speed can affect both physical and cognitive health. In fact, there was even a 16-point IQ difference between the fastest and the slowest walkers, the study found. Slower walkers were also judged to appear significantly older than faster walkers, and scored worse on tests that measured balance and grip strength.

研究者发现，从多项生理指标来看，走路最慢的参试者呈现了加速衰老的特征，同时他们的大脑总容量也有所减小。这表明，走路速度会影响人的身体健康和认知健康。研究还发现，走路最慢和最快的参试者之间平均相差16个智商值。走路较慢的参试者比走路快的参试者看起来明显更显老，在平衡和握力测试中的得分也更低。

“How fast people are walking in midlife tells us a lot about how much their bodies and brains have aged over time,” said lead researcher Line Rasmussen, Ph.D., of Duke University. She told Runner’s World the most remarkable aspect of the research is that they may be able to look at cognitive functions in toddlers — how well they do on an IQ test, their proficiency at language, how easily they manage their emotions — and predict how slowly those children will be walking at midlife. “Gait speed is not only an indicator of aging, but also an indicator of lifelong brain health,” she said.

杜克大学的首席研究员莱恩·拉斯穆森博士说：“人到中年时的步行速度可以反映出随着时间的推移，他们身体和大脑的衰老程度如何。”她告诉《跑者世界》，这项研究最引人注目的一点是，研究者可以通过观察学步儿童的各种认知能力，比如他们在智力测试中的表现、他们的语言能力和情绪管理能力，来预测这些孩子中年时期的步行速度。她说：“步行速度不仅是一项衡量衰老的指标，也是衡量大脑终身健康状况的指标。”

Does that mean those kids are destined to be slow walkers, and therefore at a disadvantage health-wise when they get older? Not necessarily, Rasmussen added, because there are ways to improve brain health. For example, running. “Although we didn’t investigate running speed in this study, typically people who love running are also able to walk very fast, because running keeps the brain’s capacity to control bipedal locomotion at its sharpest,” she said. “Running is an excellent way of keeping the body and mind in shape.”

这是否意味着，这些孩子长大以后就必然会走路缓慢，他们年老之后的身体机能也必会处于劣势?拉斯穆森博士认为未必如此，因为大脑健康状况可以通过多种方式来改善，例如跑步。“虽然在这项研究中，我们并没有测试参与者的跑步速度，但通常来说，热爱跑步的人走路也很快，因为跑步会使大脑控制双足步行的能力保持在最敏锐的水平，”她说，“跑步是保持身心健康的绝佳方式。"