Regular walking prevents chronic back pain

People who walk a lot have less back pain than people who do not walk much – and the volume is what matters most, not the intensity

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

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A major study has investigated the relationship between walking and the risk of developing chronic lower back problems. The findings could save the healthcare system significant amounts of money while also alleviating many people’s back pain – if we just follow the simple advice provided.

The results are clear: People who walk a lot have less back pain than people who do not walk much – and the volume is what matters most, not the intensity.. It is better to walk a lot than to walk fast.

“People who walk more than 100 minutes every day have a 23 per cent lower risk of lower back problems than those who walk 78 minutes or less,” said Rayane Haddadj.

He is a PhD candidate at the Department of Public Health and Nursing at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and is part of a research group that specifically studies musculoskeletal disorders.

The results of the new study were published in the JAMA Network Open journal. The article has already received a lot of attention.

Even leisurely strolls are beneficial

It probably comes as no surprise that physical activity is good for your back, but until now we have not actually known whether the amount of low-intensity walking we do also helps.

“Intensity also plays a role in the risk of long-term back problems, but not as much as the daily amount of walking,” emphasized Haddadj.

A total of 11,194 people participated in the study, which is part of the Trøndelag Health Study (The HUNT Study). What makes this study unique is that the volume and intensity of daily walking were measured using two sensors that participants wore on their thigh and back for up to a week.

The results may be important in relation to preventing chronic back problems. Until now, there has been little research on the prevention of these types of musculoskeletal problems. It is well known that physical activity can prevent a wide range of illnesses and ailments. This study is important because it confirms that physical activity, and especially daily walking, can help prevent long-term lower back problems.

Back pain is a very common ailment

“The findings highlight the importance of finding time to be physically active – to prevent both chronic back problems and a number of other diseases. Over time, this could lead to major savings for society,” said Paul Jarle Mork, a professor at NTNU’s Department of Public Health and Nursing.

Back and neck problems cost society several billion kroner every year. Musculoskeletal disorders are likely the largest expense within the Norwegian healthcare system.

Back pain is one of the most common health problems in Norway. Depending on what you include, between 60 and 80 per cent of us will experience back problems at some point in our lives. At any given time, around one in five Norwegians has back trouble.

The causes are many and complex, but the solution might be as simple as putting on your shoes and going for a walk – each and every day.

Reference: Haddadj R, Nordstoga AL, Nilsen TIL, et al. Volume and Intensity of Walking and Risk of Chronic Low Back Pain JAMA Netw Open. 2025;8(6):e2515592. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.15592

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Journal

JAMA

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.15592 

Method of Research

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Volume and Intensity of Walking and Risk of Chronic Low Back Pain

 

Effective urban planning from real-world population tracking

Hiroshima University

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The weighted KDE of analysis of the data from the POIs in Pekanbaru (blue), indicating urban functional delineation, overlaid over a Sentinel-2 map of the city. The five deeper blue areas are the hotspots of urban activity, which correspond to urbanized areas. The borders of the delineation do not correspond to the borders of the urbanized area on the map, which indicates a difference between how urban functional delineation and traditional urban delineation define urbanization

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Credit: (Zahra Witsqa Maghfira, Ridwan Sutriadi, Ahmad Baikuni Perdana. Computational Urban Science. July 7, 2025)

Tracking human behavioral patterns in cities can be used to determine urban delineations and urban land use, which has the potential to improve urban planning.

Urban areas are human settlements, typically cities, characterized by high population densities and built infrastructure. Urban areas need to be carefully planned, to ensure they are safe and sanitary. They are not self-sustaining but are dependent on an influx of essential resources.

Delineating urban areas is of great importance for planning and governance. Historically, this has been determined by establishing administrative boundaries and by surveying land use types. However, as urban areas have high populations, these approaches do not address how people interact with urban areas.

A newer approach to delineating urban areas, termed urban functional delineation, is now a focus of intense research. This approach is based entirely on analyzing how the population interacts with urban areas, independent of administrative boundaries or land use.

First and corresponding author Zahra Witsqa Maghfira, a graduate student in Hiroshima University's Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering Program, Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, and co-authors at the Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia, applied a social sensing approach to study urban functional delineation in Pekanbaru, Indonesia. Their research was published in the journal Computational Urban Science on July 7, 2025. 

“We define an urban functional area as the spatial extent of concentrated urban functions,” Maghfira explained. “We used Points of Interest (POI) data as a form of social sensing to capture behavioral patterns through locations that people frequently visit throughout the day. We analyzed this data using Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) and enhanced it with spatial autocorrelation, developing an urban delineation that reflects how urban spaces are used. This approach is especially valuable in cities like Pekanbaru, where conventional delineations may obscure the true dynamics of urban life.”

“Our method identified urban spaces based on human activity instead of relying solely on built structures or satellite imagery,” Maghfira elaborates. “The strong thematic and positional alignment with Sentinel-2 satellite data shows that our method detects urban presence reliably, but the distinct boundary patterns reveal something deeper: urban functionality is shaped by where people go and what they do, not just by what has been constructed. We argue that planning should embrace this behavioral perspective to better support dynamic, responsive urban development.

Using this approach, the researchers were able to identify five hotspots of urban activity in Pekanbaru. Comparison with land cover-, street network- and Sentinel-2 maps of the city revealed that the most-urbanized areas of the city determined by traditional methods and urban functional delineation were largely the same; however, the boundaries of the urban area differed sharply.

“Such disparity reveals a fascinating insight: activity-based models like ours do not replicate physical form but instead trace the rhythm and pulse of urban life,” Maghfira says. “It listens to where a city is most alive. This difference is more than technical: it challenges how we interpret urban spaces and invites planners to recognize that where people go often matters more than what is physically there.”

Future research will turn to applications of this method. Specifically, Maghfira is interested in using this approach to advise policymakers who make decisions concerning urban zoning and development. “We are developing a model that mimics the spatial logic used in formal zoning frameworks, aiming not only to replicate current patterns but to assess where in the spatial planning process such a behavior-based model can be most effectively applied. Ultimately, our goal is to create a decision-support tool that bridges real-world human activity and formal planning instruments, making zoning more responsive, adaptable, and reflective of actual urban dynamics,” she concludes.

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About Hiroshima University

Since its foundation in 1949, Hiroshima University has striven to become one of the most prominent and comprehensive universities in Japan for the promotion and development of scholarship and education. Consisting of 12 schools for undergraduate level and 5 graduate schools, ranging from natural sciences to humanities and social sciences, the university has grown into one of the most distinguished comprehensive research universities in Japan. English website: https://www.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/en

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Journal

Computational Urban Science

DOI

10.1007/s43762-025-00194-w 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Assessing Urban functional area delineation: POI data and kde analysis in pekanbaru

 

Fast-growing brains may explain how humans — and marmosets — learn to talk

A new mathematical model reveals that rapid brain growth in a squirrel-size monkey, the marmoset, sets the stage for vocal learning, which may similarly explain how people learn to communicate early in life.

Princeton University

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Could a baby’s still-growing brain help set the stage for learning language? Princeton neuroscientists find surprising clues from chatty monkeys who share the power of babble.

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Credit: Francesco Veronesi, "Family of Common Marmoset", Flickr (2014). Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

PRINCETON, N.J. — When a baby babbles and their parents respond, these back-and-forth exchanges are more than adorable-if-incoherent chatter — they help to build a baby’s emerging language skills.

But it turns out this learning strategy makes humans an oddity within the animal kingdom.

Only a handful of other species -- including a few songbirds such as cowbirds and zebra finches — learn to “talk” by noting their parents’ reactions to their initial coos and gurgles.

How did humans become adept at learning language this way? A new study across multiple members of the primate family tree suggests the answer may lie, in part, in newborn babies’ fast-growing brains.

Published August 19 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the findings come from research on a squirrel-size monkey called the marmoset.

Babbling beyond humans

In the wild, marmosets use their high-pitched calls to stay in touch when they’re out of sight of one another in the thick dense forests of northeastern Brazil.

Just over a decade ago, while studying marmoset vocalizations, Princeton professor of neuroscience and psychology Asif Ghazanfar and colleagues noticed that baby marmosets go through a babbling phase, just like humans do.

As newborn marmosets grow, their first sputtering cries transform into the more whistle-like calls of adults. The researchers also found that baby marmosets who received more frequent adult feedback during their babbling bouts were quicker to catch on. They learned to produce adult-like calls significantly faster than the controls.

“That was a pretty big ‘aha!’ moment,” Ghazanfar said.

These studies, published in 2015 and 2017 by Ghazanfar with his then-postdoc Daniel Takahashi, now at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil, were some of the first evidence of what appeared to be vocal learning in another primate.

But humans and marmosets last shared a common ancestor some 40 million years ago. Even our closest living relatives, chimpanzees, need very little tutoring to make the sounds of their kin.

“So that kind of presents a puzzle,” Ghazanfar said. 

Since then, the researchers have been trying to figure out why humans and marmosets arrived at such similar learning strategies despite being so distantly related.

Neural growth spurt supports learning

In the new study, led by Princeton Ph.D. student Renata Biazzi, the researchers collected and analyzed previously published data on the brain development of four primate species including humans, marmosets, chimpanzees and rhesus macaques, from conception to adolescence.

The results suggest that, in early infancy, the brains of humans and marmosets are growing faster than those of other primates. Importantly, most of that growth happens not in the confines of the womb, as is the case for chimpanzees and macaques, but right around the time they are born and first experience the outside world.

In marmosets, as in humans, this also happens to be an incredibly social time, Ghazanfar said. That’s because marmoset moms, like human mothers, don’t raise their offspring without help. Babies interact with multiple caregivers who respond to every cry.

“They are a handful,” Ghazanfar said.

And because their brains are still developing, “that means that the social environment an infant is born into has a tremendous influence” on their learning, he added.

Using a mathematical model, the researchers were able to show how these early interactions, when coupled with rapid brain growth, set the stage for vocal skills to develop later on.

Baby talk

Next, the team plans to look into whether adult marmosets use specific sounds when interacting with infants, much like human adults use “baby talk” to communicate with our babies.

By looking at the only other primate whose infants are capable of using feedback to learn sounds, scientists hope to better understand how a child goes from cooing and babbling to, say, negotiating their way out of chores or joining the debate team.

This doesn’t mean that other primates can’t change up their calls later in life.

“We're only talking about vocal learning during infancy,” Ghazanfar said. “This is the period when their brains are especially malleable.”

This work was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Health (R01NS054898).

CITATION: "Altricial brains and the evolution of infant vocal learning," Renata B. Biazzi, Daniel Y. Takahashi, and Asif A. Ghazanfar. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Aug. 19, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2421095122

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About the Princeton Neuroscience Institute (PNI)

Founded in 2005, the Princeton Neuroscience Institute brings together researchers across disciplines at Princeton University to investigate how the brain gives rise to perception, cognition, and behavior. Led by Director Mala Murthy, PNI has built internationally recognized strengths in computational and quantitative neuroscience, advanced neurotechnology, and integrative approaches that connect molecular, cellular, and systems-level analyses with human cognitive studies. For more information, please visit: https://www.pni.princeton.edu

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Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2421095122 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Altricial brains and the evolution of infant vocal learning

 

Seagrass as a carbon sponge?

U-M studies suss out the impact of nutrients on coastal seagrasses

University of Michigan

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University of Michigan researchers, including recent doctoral graduate Bridget Shayka, studied the impact of nutrients on seagrass. They studied plots of seagrass growing in a bay in The Bahamas, where Shayka took this photo.

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Credit: Bridget Shayka

ANN ARBOR—Seagrass has the potential to be one of the world's most effective sponges at soaking up and storing carbon, but we don't yet know how nutrient pollution affects its ability to sequester carbon.

In a pair of studies, U-M researchers evaluated the impact of nitrogen and phosphorus on seagrass, short, turf-like grasses that live in shallow, coastal areas. Examining data gathered from a plot of seagrass enriched with nutrients over a period of nine years, the scientists found that nutrients can increase seagrass's ability to store carbon. However, in a second study, they also found that an overload of nitrogen could lead to increased phytoplankton growth, which can shade out and kill seagrass. 

Both studies, published in Global Change Biology and Conservation Letters, respectively, were supported by the National Science Foundation and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation.

Jacob Allgeier, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, studies fish and seagrass and coral ecology in bays of the Bahamas and Dominican Republic. He noticed that seagrasses growing in bays overloaded with nutrients, mostly from human wastewater, quickly died off. Light couldn't penetrate through the phytoplankton, which also proliferated under the high-nutrient conditions.

However, in other bays that experienced nutrient runoff but didn’t have light-shading phytoplankton, he saw that seagrass grew well. Coastal tropical areas are often nutrient-starved. When the seagrasses growing there are bathed in nutrients, their growth takes off as long as there is not too much phytoplankton blocking out light, Allgeier says.

The researchers, led by recent U-M doctoral graduate Bridget Shayka, found that in relatively nutrient-poor beds of seagrass, phosphorus and nitrogen helped seagrass grow. As the seagrass grew, it first invested in its underground growth, or root systems, storing carbon in its roots. Then, the grass invested in above ground structures—their blades. The end result was that the roots grew quickly but also died quickly, which shunted extra carbon into the sediment surrounding the roots and sequestered it at a higher rate.

"People thought excess nutrients were killing seagrass," Allgeier said. "But we show that as long as there are not too many nutrients, which would also increase phytoplankton, the seagrass will just increase growth with excess nutrients." 

To study nutrient impacts, Shayka and Allgeier took samples of the seagrass from test plots in the Bahamas that had been treated with nutrients for nine years. Shayka and a raft of 17 undergraduates painstakingly untangled the seagrass, separating the grass into parts: the blades that grow above ground but under water, the sheath from which the blades emerge, the seagrass's roots and the seagrass's rhizomes—basically an underground stem from which other seagrass plants can grow.

They then freeze-dried each part, pulverized them and tested them for nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon. In addition to finding that increasing nutrients in the system increased carbon turnover in the plants, the researchers also found that nutrients supplied by human sources had a greater impact on the seagrasses than those supplied by fish. 

"The systems we study are pretty low-nutrient systems, so adding nutrients can increase seagrass production," said Shayka, now a program officer for the nonprofit Ocean Visions. "But we also know that when you go too far and add too many nutrients, it really destroys these systems. It's one of the leading causes of their destruction around the world and in coastal systems."

In the second study, the researchers tested which nutrient, nitrogen or phosphorus, had the greatest impact on seagrass, as well as whether the ratio of nitrogen to phosphorus or the total amount of each nutrient had the greatest effect on the system. They also examined nutrient impacts on phytoplankton.

To do this, they created 21 different ratios of nitrogen to phosphorus and added nutrients to test plots of seagrass growing in a different part of the same bay as well as to phytoplankton in bottles. They found that phosphorus had a bigger positive effect on seagrass growth than nitrogen in the nutrient-poor conditions. 

Longstanding ecological theory suggests that the ratio of nutrients has the greatest impact on a system—but the researchers found that in this particular case, phosphorus had a greater effect on seagrass while nitrogen had a greater effect on phytoplankton growth. In particular, the researchers found that the addition of nitrogen caused the rates of phytoplankton in the bottles to skyrocket, showing that increasing nitrogen in the natural landscape could lead to levels of phytoplankton that would shade out the seagrass.

"When you grow tomatoes, you don't just add nitrogen. You add a perfect ratio of nitrogen and phosphorus. That idea is replete in our society," Allgeier said. "But because we tested the water column and because we tested the seagrass, we're able to say that model doesn't work in our system."

This finding could inform how local communities control for nutrient impacts to seagrass.

"We're not stopping nutrient enrichment. It's just not going to stop," Allgeier said. "But we can manage it. And how do you best manage it? We scrub it for nitrogen."

 

Study 1: Nutrient Enrichment Increases Blue Carbon Potential of Subtropical Seagrass Beds

Study 2: A New Conceptual Model of Tropical Seagrass Eutrophication: Evidence for Single Nutrient Management 

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Journal

Global Change Biology

DOI

10.1111/gcb.70401 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

Nutrient Enrichment Increases Blue Carbon Potential of Subtropical Seagrass Beds

Seagrass swap could reshape Chesapeake Bay food web

Virginia Institute of Marine Science

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Seagrasses in the Chesapeake Bay provide foundational structure impacting biodiversity, food webs and ecosystem processes. Photo by Frederick Corey Holbert

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Credit: Frederick Corey Holbert

Beneath the surface of the Chesapeake Bay, a subtle but dramatic shift is taking place as eelgrass gives way to its warmer-water relative, widgeon grass. A new study from researchers at William & Mary's Batten School & VIMS shows that this seagrass swap could have ecological impacts across the Bay’s food webs, fisheries and ecosystem functions.

Published in Marine Ecology Progress Series, the study reveals that while both seagrass species offer valuable habitat, they support marine life in very different ways. The researchers estimate that the continued shift eelgrass to widgeon grass could lead to a 63% reduction in the total quantity of invertebrate biomass living in seagrass meadows in the Bay by 2060.

“Several factors including water quality, rising temperatures and human development are threatening eelgrass in the Chesapeake Bay. In its place, particularly in the middle Bay, widgeon grass has expanded due to its ability to tolerate warmer, more variable conditions,” said Associate Professor Chris Patrick, who is also director of the Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV) Monitoring & Restoration Program at the Batten School of Coastal & Marine Sciences & VIMS.  “However, the two grasses provide structurally distinct habitats that shape the animals living within.”

All grasses are not created equal

While working with Patrick and earning her master’s degree at the Batten School & VIMS, lead author Lauren Alvaro M.S. ’23 engaged in extensive fieldwork studying seagrass meadows in Mobjack Bay. Her team surveyed and compared habitats consisting of eelgrass, widgeon grass as well as mixed beds. They documented everything from burrowing clams and snails to crabs and fishes to get an idea of life living within the sediment and amongst the grasses.

The findings showed that while widgeon grass supports more individual invertebrates per gram of plant material, eelgrass meadows are home to larger animals and have more plant biomass per square meter. As a result, eelgrass supports a greater total animal biomass per square meter.

“Our findings suggest that we’re likely to see a fundamental shift in the structure of the food web that favors smaller creatures as eelgrass is replaced by widgeon grass,” said Alvaro. “The eelgrass meadows produced fewer animals, but they’re bigger and more valuable to predators like fish and blue crabs.”

Much of the difference is due to the physical characteristics of the two types of seagrasses. Widgeon grass beds have a greater surface-to-biomass ratio due to their narrower leaf structure, which provides more area for small invertebrates to cling to. However, eelgrass’ broader leaves provide a type of canopy favored by animals like pipefish, blue crabs, and larger isopods, which are small shrimp-like crustaceans.

The bigger picture

The researchers extrapolated their findings and estimated that current seagrass habitats in the Chesapeake Bay support approximately 66,139 tons of invertebrate biomass living in the sediment and amongst the grass beds and produce 35,274 tons of new animal biomass each growing season. Termed “secondary production,” this is the biomass the habitat makes available to higher levels of the food chain.  

If seagrasses continue to shift as expected, by 2060 secondary production could be reduced by more than 60% under a scenario where no further nutrient reductions occur.  Nutrient runoff into the Bay is the largest threat to submerged aquatic vegetation. Even in a best-case nutrient management scenario, the Bay could still lose approximately 15% of secondary production biomass.

“Within the limits of our study, it wasn’t possible to determine whether it was the meadow’s physical structure, the meadow area, or available food sources that contributed to greater numbers of fish in the eelgrass meadows,” said Alvaro. “This makes it difficult to accurately estimate fishery-level impacts of changes in meadow composition, but several lines of reasoning support an expectation of reduction in numerous commercial and recreational species.”

The study adds to a growing body of research documenting the effects of changes in foundational species influenced by a warming planet. The authors cite similar research involving Florida’s mangroves and a worldwide shift from coral to algae-dominated ecosystems.

As states within the Bay’s extensive watershed work to maintain and improve the health of the estuary, the team hopes their findings will help inform management decisions and restoration strategies. Protecting and restoring the remaining eelgrass and better understanding the role of widgeon grass may help preserve ecological resources for future generations and provide a buffer against future shocks.

Visit the website for the SAV Monitoring and Restoration Program for more information about seagrass research at the Batten School & VIMS.

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Journal

Marine Ecology Progress Series

DOI

10.3354/meps14901 

Article Title

Changing foundation species in Chesapeake Bay (USA): implications for faunal communities of two dominant seagrass species

Article Publication Date

4-Sep-2025