If you’ve been needing proof that you should’ve made a New Years resolution to do more planned walking, particularly if you have a blockage in your blood vessels in your legs, known as PAD (peripheral arterial disease), then you should check out the U.S. government study results.

It’s as simple as a regular six-minute walk on a treadmill that will improve your stamina and quality of life, even if you don’t have any of the classic symptoms of the pain in your legs because of the arteries being blocked. The 156 people who participated in the study who had been diagnosed with PAD proved that result.

The study revealed two new aspects to the issues with these participants, even though walking is normally recommended for PAD patients. He study was run in Chicago at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University.

The symptom of intermittent claudicating was the subject of all the prior studies. This symptom of PAD was not found in some of the patients (they were asymptomatic). Leg strength was tested as well, being the largest study ever to consider that.

A specific result of the study showed that for the six months study, an increase of 69 feet in the distance they could walk was achieved for those who regularly did their six-minute walks on the treadmill. And for those who didn’t do the regular walks, a decrease of 49 feet on average of their ability to walk in a session was reported.

Another study on animals, which looked at the basic knowledge of PAD, showed that there are some explanations for the ability of the participants who walked their six-minute treadmill exercises to increase their overall walking distance. The explanation is that greater extraction levels of oxygen from the blood gave the muscles the ability to use the blood flow and therefore the release of the oxygen that comes from that maximized exercise experience.

This level of exercise also gave rise to the increase in number of blood vessels in the legs of the animals with the improvement in "collateral circulation" derived from the exercise.

It hasn’t been seen in humans though when other PAD studies have been conducted, as it is very challenging to measure that result in living humans.

It is also very difficult to know if a person is susceptible to PAD without having the persistent pain, but one out of 16 Americans 40 years old or older are estimated to have PAD.

A doctor can test blood pressure in arms and ankle areas to determine a possible PAD diagnosis.