Research suggests that walking up to 10,000 steps a day reduces your risk of heart disease and early death, even if you spend the rest of your time sitting.
This research British Journal of Sports MedicineNow, we found that for every step you take above 2,200 per day, you reduce these risks by up to about 10,000 steps, regardless of how much time you spend sitting the rest of the day.
Experts have found that people who walk between 9,000 and 10,500 steps a day have the lowest risk of premature death.
When it came to avoiding strokes and heart attacks, people who walked about 9,700 steps a day had the lowest risk.
The study, led by academics at the University of Sydney, analyzed data from more than 70,000 people aged around 61 in the US. UK Biobank.
In the study, participants wore accelerometers for seven days to measure their exercise levels. Over seven years of follow-up, 1,633 people died and 6,190 cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes were recorded.
The study concluded that taking between 9,000 and 10,500 steps a day reduces the risk of premature death by 39% and reduces the risk of heart attack or stroke by more than a fifth.
The results also showed that taking more than 2,200 steps a day was associated with lower rates of death and heart disease, independent of sedentary time, but the effect It increased as the number increased.
In both cases, half of the benefits were achieved with 4,000 to 4,500 steps a day.
Julie Ward, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: ‘Daily physical activity is essential to maintaining a healthy lifestyle and reducing the risk of developing heart disease and stroke. we know.
“These encouraging new studies show that every step you take towards achieving 10,000 steps a day can help reduce your risk of death and heart disease. Even at low activity levels, you can reduce your risk of stroke. You can reduce your risk.
“For your heart and circulatory health, we recommend staying active with 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week.
“This means making changes to your lifestyle, such as taking regular walking breaks from your computer screen, going to the gym, enjoying an exercise class, or even getting off the bus one stop early to get in more steps. Any combined activity will do.”
