http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...tones_health_3

The path to better health and lower blood pressure may be paved with cobblestones. When people over 60 walked on smooth, rounded cobblestones for just a half-hour a day over four months, they significantly lowered their blood pressure and improved their balance, a study showed.

Now I bet they will figure out why Europeans on the whole are slimmer too. It's the cobblestones!

Very interesting. I'm copying the article for my mom. She's accompanying me on a trip next week, and she's worried about all the cobblestone streets. Good timing!

There seems to be something missing from the story. If those same people had normally spent that half hour per day sitting in front of a TV instead, is anyone surprised?

Now you're going to suggest I read the rest of the article, aren't you? OK, I will.

I think they've confused cause and effect. The ones who didn't have a good sense of balance didn't make it to the 4-month mark--they'd all fallen down before that and injured various extremities.

One's blood pressure can usually be lowered with any excerise. As for improving balance while walking on cobblestones---try it in 3" stilettos sling-backs.

I suppose visitor numbers to Versailles will now double or triple, given that it has some of the most annoying and dangerous cobblestones around.

Makes perfect sense to me!

Ya think? I just returned from walking all over cobblestones and I grew what I thought may be a sixth toe! Turns out it was a giant blister from my foot going side to side on cobblestones and other uneven surfaces. And yes the shoes were fitted and were Mephistos. When I first saw it, I imagine my blood pressure rose, I was so shocked!

I walk on cobblestones every day on my way to work and half the time I nearly trip. Lovely old cobbles shaped the same are fine...lumpy ones ythat are half stones half cobbles are the bain of my life. I have ruined more pairs of shoes this year than ever before and I am a brite on shoes. Nice idea but what will they study next!

It's worth noting that the "cobblestones" were simulated (a plastic mat), that the control subjects walked the same amount as those who walked on the "cobblestones" (the controls waked on flat surfaces), and that the "cobblestone walkers" did not wear shoes (some wore socks, some did not).

And this was a study conducted by physiologists with interests in the two mechanisms responsible for maintaining balance - - the vestibulocochlear system, and the somatosensory nervous system. They were not (primarily) studying blood pressure, nor any other measure of "fitness" that I can tell.

There is no mention that any of the subjects had elevated blood pressure at the time of enrollment, and I will speculate that none did. There is no immediate connection between this and what might benefit those who DO have hypertension - - though there is no inherent reason to believe that hypertensive subjects wouldn't also have the changes in improving their balance, compared to normotensive subjects.

Given that the research was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Aging, and that benefits in improved balance are postulated to be beneficial with aging...

...the authors do all its readers a disservice by not mentioning the age(s) of the subjects in lay press releases about their study (it's not given on their website at www.ori.org either). They say that it can be viewed in the early online edition of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, but I cannot find it there.

Best wishes,

Rex

So to summarize, Rex. . .

"it was a big bunch of crap!"

Did I get that about right?

Really no surprise here...anytime you have to work to keep your balance you use more muscles, burn more calories and develop better balance. It's the same reason that working out with free weights has differen t effects than weight machines...and the same reason why "functional fitness" exercise programs (that deliberately un-balance you with balls, balance boards, etc) are all the rage.

But I must say it was clever to look at cobblestones as the medium. This helps explain how fit and active all those seniors were in Italy...I guess the steep hills in some of those cobblestoned towns helped too.

Of course, this study did not measure whether these people end up with more foot or knee problems. Of course those things often develop over the long-term...

<<Did I get that about right?>>

No. Not at all. It was an interesting look at the items tashak mentions, and probably may have relevance to developing programs for fitness and maintenance of balance in the elderly.

The investigators have a career commitment to research on exercise physiology and, in particular, the prevention of falls in the elderly (a problem which is part physical, and part cognitive). They have studied Tai Chi in the elderly extensively.

I am all for research designed to prevent falls, especially those that contribute to paying (with the tax dollars from all of us) orthopedic surgeons for operations to fix fractures in those who have moved into the dependent phase of their lives (note: I acknowledge that not all elderly people who fall are dependent on the rest of society; some/many are self-dependent on the wealth that they helped to create).

I travel with a folding walking cane. When needed unfold and walk without fear of falling.

Please dont tell it to my husband..He developed a foot problem walking on Cobblestones while were were in Florence..The problem lasted a year and he had to go to the podiatrist.

When I got back from Europe a few weeks ago I was practically crippled from the cobblestones! I walk a brisk 5 miles a day here at home, but 5+ miles a day on cobblestones ravaged me, I needed 2 days of IV antibiotics upon arrival home for a foot infection caused by a blister and then a shot of cortisone in my knee! Honest to God I was a wreck, LOL. Next time I am taking a cane and I am not even old!

Never mind all that medical talk, let's get back to historytraveler's "3"stiletto sling backs." Any photos?

Actually, I was quite impressed with the "average" Parisian females that I observed on my last trip there, all had the 3" stiletto sling backs, walking on cobblestones, smoking a cigarette, talking on a cell phone, with a dog on a leash. All at the same time! Be still my heart.

Chatham, where did you get the folding walking cane?

I walked on cobblestones in Switzerland for nearly 2 weeks. Took as long to lower my blood pressure back to where it was. What's wrong with this picture

FainaAgain:

You can find a few folding cane options on this page:
http://tinyurl.com/cyly9