Key sign in your walk could tell you how long you're going to live

If you wanted to know how long you're going to live for, it turns out there's one key sign in your walk that could hold the answers.

Now, understandably, not everyone would want to find out the age they will pop their clogs - while some people say they'd find comfort in knowing, others believe it would simply make them live their life in fear.

It's an age-old question that science doesn't know the answer to right now for each individual person, but who knows, with the rate technology and artificial intelligence is advancing, maybe in the future we'll know the exact year ahead of time.

Anyway, if you do want somewhat of a hint, as we say, you can take a look at something you do every day - walking.

According to BBC future, the simple act of moving from one place to another can reveal a lot about the inner workings of your body and mind, including a rough estimate of how quickly your brain is ageing.

Your walking speed can reveal a lot about your health (Getty Stock Image)

Christina Dieli-Conwright, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, who studies the effects of exercise on cancer prognosis, told the publication that when a person's normal walking pace declines, it is often associated with 'underlying health declines'.

The expert explained: "It might be that the person has a chronic condition which has meant that they haven't been moving as much or have become sedentary. That means that, more than likely, they've experienced a decrease in muscle strength, and joint mobility, which unfortunately leads to further health declines."

As per the publication, research has shown that the speed you walk to the shops, the local park, or the bus stop, can actually predict your chance of being hospitalised, suffering a serious health issue like a heart attack, or even dying.

You can test your walking speed with the 10m speed test, where you measure out 5m, followed by another 10m.

Simply walk for 5m to get up to your normal speed, then continue at your normal pace for 10m and calculate your walking speed by dividing 10m by the number of seconds it took to walk that distance.

As we say, the results will be able to tell you a lot as multiple studies have highlighted the link between walking speed and how long you'll live.

There's a simple test you can try to work out your pace (Getty Stock Image)

For example, as per the BBC, scientists at the University of Pittsburgh put together the results of nine studies, which tracked more than 34,000 adults aged 65 years or older and it revealed that gait speed was significantly associated with lifespan.

The team of researchers also found that changes in gait speed over time could predict early indicators of dementia, such as cognitive decline, particularly in older adults.

And Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver told CNN: "We’ve actually known for quite a long time that walking speed correlates with outcomes, meaning the faster you walk, the better you do. And it certainly makes sense, because you can imagine, somebody who’s in really bad shape is probably not going to be able to walk very quickly."

If you want to improve your walking speed, the answer is an easy one, you just need to do more walking.

Swapping out some shorter bus rides and car journeys to instead travel on foot will improve your speed, and your overall health as you'll be getting fitter, over time.

It's also important to emphasise, of course, that being a slower walker doesn't always mean you have a health issue or anything of the sort - so don't panic too much if your walking skills aren't as speedy as you'd like.