Good news if you struggle to get your 10,000 steps a day in – walking as few as 4,000 steps still reduces the risk of dying from any health-related cause.
In addition, walking just 2,337 steps a day reduces the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease.
For decades, 10,000 steps has been the benchmark for those trying to boost their health – even though the figure was initially decided not by scientists, but a Japanese marketing team advertising a pedometer.
Nevertheless, the figure has become embedded in health regimes around the world and numerous studies have confirmed the benefits of hitting the magic number.
Now however, new research published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology has shown even walking less than 10,000 steps still has significant health benefits.
Analysis of 226,889 people from 17 different studies found the risk of dying from any health-related cause, including cardiovascular disease, decreases significantly with every extra 500 to 1,000 steps walked.
An increase of 1,000 steps a day was associated with a 15% reduction in the risk of dying from any cause, and an increase of 500 steps a day was associated with a 7% reduction in dying from cardiovascular disease.
‘Our study confirms that the more you walk, the better,’ said Maciej Banach, professor of cardiology at the Medical University of Lodz, Poland.
‘We found that this applied to both men and women, irrespective of age, and irrespective of whether you live in a temperate, sub-tropical or sub-polar region of the world, or a region with a mixture of climates.’
Myriad studies have shown the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle, which may contribute to cardiovascular disease and a shorter lifespan. More women than men and people in higher income countries do not undertake a sufficient amount of physical activity every week, but increasing steps is an easy, and free, way to improve health.
According to World Health Organization data, 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.
And while not exercising enough has serious consequences, the study found no upper limit at which point the benefits ceased.
‘Until now, it’s not been clear what is the optimal number of steps, both in terms of the cut-off points over which we can start to see health benefits, and the upper limit, if any, and the role this plays in people’s health,’ said senior author Dr Ibadete Bytyçi, from the University Clinical Centre of Kosovo.
‘However, I should emphasise that there were limited data available on step counts up to 20,000 a day, and so these results need to be confirmed in larger groups of people.’
The average age of participants was 64, and 49% were women. The studies followed participants for an average of seven years.
Limitations of the study include that it was an observational study, so can only show increased step count is associated with a reduction in the risk of death, not caused by it, while the methods for counting steps were not identical across the studies.
‘In a world where we have more and more advanced drugs to target specific conditions such as cardiovascular disease, I believe we should always emphasise that lifestyle changes, including diet and exercise, which was a main hero of our analysis, might be at least as, or even more effective in reducing cardiovascular risk and prolonging lives,’ said Professor Banach.
‘We still need good studies to investigate whether these benefits may exist for intensive 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 pharmacological treatments, we should always think about personalising lifestyle changes.’
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