Go Retire Psychiatrist

This post isn’t about burly guys who move your furniture. I found this article about super movers who are persons 80 years old or older with walking speeds comparable to those who are 30 years younger.

Verghese J, Cotton K, Sathyan S, Ayers E, Mahoney JR, De Sanctis P, Wang C, Jin Y, Blumen HM, Jayakody O. Super Movers: Epidemiology and Biology of a Novel Exceptional Aging Phenotype. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2025 Jun 10;80(7):glaf107. doi: 10.1093/gerona/glaf107. PMID: 40344012; PMCID: PMC12239635. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12239635/

I consider a fast walker compared to my wife who occasionally goes on walks around the block with me. By myself, I usually go at a pretty good clip. I’m not 80 yet (I’m 71) and I consider myself to be in fairly good shape.

I attribute that to working as a consulting psychiatrist in a big hospital where I walked fast all over, responding to urgent calls for psychiatric consultation from my colleagues in medicine and surgery. The hospital had 8 floors and I usually skipped taking the elevator.

Anyway, according to the research paper cited above:

“Gait speed is a vital sign reflecting the integration of health, disease, fitness, and emotional state in aging.”

“Faster gait is a robust indicator of survival.”

 “Conversely, slow gait predicts adverse outcomes such as falls, disability, and dementia.”

Usually, your gait speed slows down the older you get, but there are rare persons continue to walk fast as they age. The point of the authors of this study is not that simply walking faster will make you stronger, better-looking, or richer. You basically have to be born that way. All kinds of TV commercials kid you like that.

On the other hand, the authors state that “The health advantages of super movers may result from both environmental and genetic factors.” Super movers “…were less likely to be sedentary, report poor sleep, or smoke, which may influence biological aging.” They also say:

“Super movers represent a novel exceptional aging phenotype characterized by distinct biological, clinical, and behavioral profiles. Whether health advantages observed in super movers stem from healthier lifestyles and reduced disease burden or if there is also a genetic predisposition contributing to this status is unclear. Exploring the biological foundations of better health, cognition, and longevity in super movers could yield valuable insights into the protective mechanisms that facilitate healthy longevity. Notably, there was less than 20% overlap between the super mover and super agers phenotypes suggesting that examining these distinct profiles may reveal complementary strategies inform effective interventions aimed at promoting successful aging for the general population.”

Walking is good exercise and won’t hurt you. You don’t necessarily have to walk fast. If you take a walk after a meal, it’s liable to also make you fart. Think about that—but not too hard.