Health.

Join us and "take your Heart for a walk'' during Heart Month 1993, and for the rest of your life! Would you like to feel good, work better, and have a greater vitality, as well as reduce your chances of becoming overweight or having a heart attack? You can have all of this and more and all it will cost you is 30 minutes of your time three to five times a week, and some planning to make your daily life more physically active and enjoyable.

To get you started on an effective walking programme, Robert Sweetgall, the "Pied Piper of American Walking'' arrived in Bermuda yesterday and is here until Saturday. Come and learn everything you want to know about walking, as well as how to take up less space on planet earth! Check the newspaper for the programme of events or call us at the Department of Health.

Many people think they get enough exercise being "on their feet'' at work, shopping, cleaning and leading a busy life; however, these activities do not produce the benefits of regular more vigorous aerobic exercise, such as brisk walking, cycling, swimming and jogging.

Walking is a natural, healthy and safe form of exercise. For many people, walking is a leisurely ten minute stroll; however, for fitness you need to walk briskly and continuously for 30 to 60 minutes, at a pace that stimulates blood flow to your heart. Because walking is not as intense as other forms of exercise, you will have to spend a longer time walking than you would if you were to jog or cycle.

Physical fitness is the ability of the heart, lungs and arteries to efficiently distribute oxygen-rich blood to working muscles and body tissues.

The heart of a fit person pumps 36,000 times less a day than that of a unfit person. If you are not fit the muscles will not extract oxygen efficiently, so the heart has to pump more often to provide oxygen carrying blood to the muscles. Just a few weeks of brisk walking can make the heart and muscles more efficient and lessen the work the heart has to do.

Exercise that improves fitness must have three essential components; Frequency, intensity and time.

Frequency -- to maintain fitness you must walk a minimum of three times a week. If there are more than two days between exercise sessions, fitness will be lost. To improve fitness and promote weight loss you must walk more frequently.

Intensity -- You must walk fast enough to stimulate your heart, lungs and muscles to work harder. The exercise should be sufficiently strenuous to produce a detectable increase in breathing, without causing you to get out of breath. When you get out of breath your body is not obtaining adequate oxygen so the exercise is not aerobic; so make sure you exercise at your own level and do not try to keep up with someone who is fitter than you are.

The scientific way to determine if you are walking aerobically is to measure your heart rate or pulse. Your maximum heart rate per minute is 220 minus your age. This is the fastest your heart can beat. Your target heart rate, during exercise, is between 60 to 80 percent of your maximum and it is at this level that walking is aerobic.

Time -- The period of time you need to walk is directly related to the intensity of your walking. If you walk quickly you can do so for a shorter period of time than if you are a slow walker. You can obtain fitness benefits in 30 minutes if you walk at your target heart rate.

Age, medical limitations, and excess weight may make it necessary for you to vary the intensity and time you spend walking.

Walking has many health benefits. It helps to: Reduce stress and improve mood; Burn body fat; Build muscle; Increase your calorie requirements; Increase your metabolic rate (rate you burn calories); Reduce blood cholesterol and blood pressure levels; Make the heart a more efficient pump.

Can you afford to miss out on the benefits of walking? A commitment to a healthy active lifestyle should go beyond regular participation in walking or other aerobic exercise programmes. It includes increasing the physical activity in your day-to-day life -- using the stairs instead of the elevator, walking instead of driving, and participating in more active leisure time pursuits such as gardening, golf or tennis. You can easily create a plan for a more "active lifestyle'' that will extend throughout all the facets of your life -- at work, at home and with the family. Improve the quality of your life commit to a more active lifestyle. Join us on today and tomorrow and "take your Heart for a Walk''.