United Kingdom: A new study has suggested that walking a minimum of 4,000 steps a day helps reduce the risk of an early death. According to the study, taking 2,337 steps a day can lower the risk of death, specifically from cardiovascular disease, but “more is better.”
“The more steps you walk, the better the effects on your health, and every increase in steps by 500–1000 steps per day may be associated with significant mortality reductions,” the study’s first author Dr. Maciej Banach, deputy editor-in-chief of the European Society of Cardiology, stated.
The study noted that anything below 5,000 steps a day is considered a “sedentary lifestyle.”
“We showed that every increase of 1000 steps per day is associated with a 15 percent reduction in the risk of dying from any cause, and every increase of 500 steps per day is associated with a 7 percent reduction in dying from cardiovascular disease,” Dr.. Banach, who is also an adjunct professor of cardiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, remarked.
The research, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, analysed data on nearly 227,000 people from 17 studies performed in Australia, Japan, Norway, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
“While approximately 4,000 steps a day were associated with a significant reduction in the risk of an early death, the biggest impact on risk occurred when people walked more than 7,000 steps a day, with the most benefit occurring at about 20,000 steps,” the study found.
“Starting any health intervention early, whether it be regular physical activity at recommended levels, a healthy diet, or other positive lifestyle changes, will have the most impact on cholesterol, blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, and other triggers for disease,” Dr. Banach observed.
“If you are regular and consistent with your physical activity, you can always expect significant health benefits and live longer,” the author further added.
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