Aspirin is often referred to as a wonder drug, hailed as a medicine that cures many ills. In regard to exercise, walking is aspirin’s equivalent, a wonder activity.
What can walking do for a person? Walking can strengthen the heart and lungs and nourish the joints. Walking can build bones and fight osteoporosis. It burns calories, controls weight, reduces stress and improves your mood. Walking boosts energy.
For those with chronic illness, such as arthritis or diabetes, walking is particularly beneficial to overall health, and safe. With this in mind, the Arthritis Foundation created a program called Walk With Ease, designed specifically for those with chronic illnesses. The Arthritis Foundation underscores how simple walking is.
“Walking is easy to do and doesn’t require a health club membership, fancy shoes or equipment, or special training,” according to an Arthritis Foundation guide to the Walk With Ease program. “You can do it with friends, loved ones, your pet, or on your own.”
More than a year ago, the Butte-Silver Bow Health Department established a program called the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program, which teaches chronically ill people how to self-manage their life-long disease. As part of that effort, the Health Department, in partnership with the Montana Arthritis Program, has also formed the Walk With Ease program.
A new six-week Walk With Ease class begins Monday, Feb. 13 at the Butte Plaza Mall. Coordinator Theresa O’Neill-Dennehy, a certified Walk With Ease instructor, invites those wishing to participate to meet at 9 a.m. at the mall lobby area, near Maurice’s and Payless Shoes. Chronically ill individuals and those just simply wanting to start an exercise routine are welcomed. The program is free.
O’Neill-Dennehy is herself a walker, and quotes Robert Sallis, M.D., with the Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health in Southern California: “If we had a pill that conferred all the proven health benefits of walking, physicians would prescribe it to every patient, and health care systems would find a way to make sure every patient had access to this wonder drug.”
Despite the benefits to walking, O’Neill-Dennehy said she often hears people say they don’t have time to walk.
“People have difficulty taking time for themselves,” she said. “But think for a minute about the flight attendant at the beginning of a flight — the attendant will explain that in case of an emergency, put your own oxygen mask on first before tending to others. That’s an analogy, but it tells us to take care of ourselves first.”
For the Walk With Ease session beginning Monday, O’Neill-Dennehy asks participants to commit to walking three times weekly for six weeks. She said participants should also commit to making friends.
“Walk With Ease can really be a great social outlet, because we’re all walking together,” she said. “It can really give people a lift, not only physically, but in regard to their mood as well.”
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