Walking faster and outpacing death

Researchers who followed the health of nearly 500 older people for almost a decade found that those who walked more quickly were less likely to die over the course of the study.

The findings, the researchers said, suggest that gait speed may be a good predictor of long-term survival, even in people who otherwise appear basically healthy. The study was presented at a conference of the Gerontological Society of America. In a related study, appearing in the November issue of The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, the researchers also found that people whose walking speed improved reduced their risk of death.

"We don't know why," said one of the authors, Stephanie A Studenski of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "Did some of these people exercise? Did some of these people have health conditions that were treated and improved?" .

Lowering nicotine levels may help quit smoking

Smokers who were given nicotine-reduced cigarettes for five weeks and then allowed to return to their regular brands ended up smoking less, according to the authors of a small study.

The study suggested that if the government required tobacco companies to lower the nicotine levels in cigarettes, more people might be able to quit and fewer might become addicted in the first place. The companies already make cigarettes marketed as low tar and low nicotine. But they do so, the researchers say, not by lowering the amount of nicotine but by engineering the cigarette so that, in theory at least, less nicotine and tar is inhaled.

"Because there is plenty of nicotine available in the tobacco of commercial low-yield cigarettes, it is easy for the smoker to alter puff rate and/or smoking intensity," says the study, in the November issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention. The study was led by Neal L. Benowitz of the University of California, San Francisco.

New York Times