Walking is a form of exercise that can significantly improve your physical and mental health. Not only can it extend your life and prevent disease, but it can also boost your energy and mood.  In addition, studies show that if you walk regularly and quickly enough, it could be the only aerobic exercise you need to keep your heart and lungs healthy.  It's also accessible, easy, and free. So if you're one of the 47% of adults who don't meet the CDC's Physical Activity Guidelines for aerobic activity, then walking is a habit worth pursuing and keeping.   Here's seven research-backed health benefits of walking, as well as how fast, long, and regularly you should walk to reap them.  1. Burn calories and lose weight  Walking increases your heart rate, causing you to expend energy and burn calories just like other forms of physical activity such as running, swimming, or cycling. How many calories you burn depends on how fast you walk, for how long, the terrain, an...

Crime statistics have traditionally suggested that people aged 60 or over are less likely to be the victims of violent crime than the rest of the population. But while national victimisation surveys consistently report lower levels of victimisation among those aged 60 and over, these figures don’t necessarily capture the full picture. This is in part because most victimisation surveys exclude certain groups in society from participating – including those living in “institutions” such as care homes and hospitals. And in some cases, there have been age caps in these surveys. The rate of victimisation of older people may be lower than other age groups, but it is certainly not rare. A recent global systematic review estimated that at least one in six older people experience some form of physical, emotional, sexual or financial abuse each year. In the UK, this equates to around 2m people every year. To put this into context, this is higher than the UK current estimates of domestic violence ...

  A video from Punjab which became viral in June showed a newly married woman—wedding bangles (chooda) on her wrists—taking drugs. She put a lighted candle below a foil and snorted what was thought to be chitta—Punjab's notorious synthetic drug made from heroin and other substances. The video indicates that Punjab's drug problem is not restricted to the typical demographic of unemployed youth. It is rampant across divides such as class, gender, age and geography. No wonder, the Punjab government recently ordered all its employees to undergo drug tests. A crackdown on drugs by the state government after Capt Amarinder Singh came to power last year has led to arrests of a large number of peddlers and choked supply routes. Yet there is no end to the problem. In June this year, dozens of drug-related deaths were reported in the state. In the last few years, while the business and economy in the state kept sliding, the drugs trade flourished. With addicts turning peddlers and severa...