2023-08-09 19:30:46
The number of steps you must walk each day to start seeing health benefits is smaller than thoughtaccording to the largest analysis carried out to investigate it, published in the ‘European Journal of Preventive Cardiology’.
The study concludes that walking at least 3,967 steps a day begins to reduce the risk of dying from any cause, and 2,337 steps a day reduces the risk of dying from heart and blood vessel disease (cardiovascular disease).
However, new analysis of 226,889 people from 17 different studies from around the world has shown that the more you walk, the greater the health benefits. The risk of dying from any cause or from cardiovascular disease decreases significantly with each additional 500 to 1,000 steps taken.
An increase of 1,000 steps a day was associated with a 15% reduction in the risk of dying from any cause, and a 500 step increase a day was associated with a 7% reduction in dying from cardiovascular disease.
The researchers, led by Maciej Banach, Professor of Cardiology at the Medical University of Lodz, Poland, and Associate Professor at the Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, United States, found that even if people walked up to 20,000 steps a day, the health benefits kept increasing. They have not yet found an upper limit.
Both men and women
‘Our study confirms that the more you walk, the better,’ says Professor Banach. We have found this to apply to both men and women, regardless of age and regardless of whether you live in a temperate, subtropical, or subpolar region of the world, or in a region with a mix of climates. In addition -he continues-, our analysis indicates that only 4,000 steps a day are needed to significantly reduce deaths from any cause, let alone to reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease.”
There is good evidence that a sedentary lifestyle can contribute to an increase in cardiovascular disease and a shorter life. Studies have shown that insufficient physical activity affects more than a quarter of the world’s population.
There are more women than men (32% vs. 23%), and the population of countries with higher income compared to low-income countries (37% vs. 16%) do not get a sufficient amount of physical activity.
fourth cause of death
According to data from the World Health Organization, insufficient physical activity is the fourth most frequent cause of death in the world, with 3.2 million deaths a year related to physical inactivity. The Covid-19 pandemic also caused a reduction in physical activity, and activity levels have not recovered two years after it.
Dr. Ibadete Bytyçi, from the Kosovo University Clinical Center, lead author of the article, states that “until now it was not clear what the optimal number of steps was, both in terms of the cut-off points from which we can start to see health benefits, such as the upper limit, if there is one, and the role that this plays in people’s health.”
“However,” he adds, “I must stress that the available data on step counts of up to 20,000 per day they were limitedso these results need to be confirmed in larger groups of people.”
This meta-analysis is the first to not only assess the effect of walking up to 20,000 steps a day, but also to analyze whether there are differences based on age, gender, or where you live in the world.
an average of seven years
The studies analyzed by the researchers followed the participants for an average of seven years. The mean age was 64 years and 49% of the participants were women.
In those over 60 years of age, the reduction in risk of death was less than in those under 60 years of age. In older adults, a 42% reduction in risk was seen for those walking 6,000 to 10,000 steps per day, while younger adults walking 7,000 to 13,000 steps per day had a 49% reduction in risk. %.
“In a world where we have more and more advanced drugs to treat specific conditions like cardiovascular disease, I think we should always emphasize that lifestyle changes, including diet and exercise, which was one of the the main protagonists of our analysis, could be at least as effective or even more effective in reducing cardiovascular risk and prolonging life”, emphasizes Banach.
However, he notes that “good studies are still needed to investigate whether these benefits may exist for intense types of exertion, such as marathon running and Iron Man challenges, and in different populations of different ages, and with different associated health problems. However, it seems that, as with drug treatments, we should always think about personalizing lifestyle changes.”
The strengths of the meta-analysis are its size and that it was not limited to analyzing studies limited to a maximum of 16,000 steps per day. The limitations are that this is an observational study, so it cannot prove that increasing the number of steps cause reduced risk of deathbut only that it is associated with it.
The impact of step counting has not been proven in people with different
diseases; in general, all participants were healthy when they entered the studies analysed. The investigators were unable to account for differences in race and socioeconomic status, and the methods of counting steps were not identical in all studies included in this meta-analysis.
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