Reducing Risk of Death by Walking 4000 Steps Daily

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Reducing Risk of Death by Walking 4000 Steps Daily

Reducing Risk of Death by Walking 4000 Steps Daily.

We all probably know some people who are obsessed with tracking their daily step count, often glancing at their fitness trackers, determined to achieve the magical benchmark of 10,000 steps for health benefits.

But do we really need to hit 10,000 steps a day to reap the rewards? A new global meta-analysis delved into the minimum number of steps required to reduce overall mortality and cardiovascular disease risk. The study suggests that fewer steps are needed than we initially thought to gain health benefits from walking.

Reducing Risk of Death by Walking 4000 Steps Daily.

To address this question, researchers from the University of Łódź in Poland conducted the largest-ever meta-analysis on the health benefits of walking to determine how many steps are necessary to lower the risk of death.

They analyzed 17 studies from around the world, encompassing a sample size of 226,889 individuals. These studies, which reported the effects of daily walking on the general population and followed participants for an average of seven years, were considered eligible. The primary endpoints of the study were all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease-related mortality, as well as their association with different step counts (up to 20,000 steps per day).

One of the co-authors of the study, Ibadete Bytyçi, stated, “Until now, it was not clear what the optimal number of steps is, including where the threshold and upper limit (if any) for seeing health benefits start and what role this plays in people’s health. However, it should be emphasized that the data for achieving 20,000 steps per day are limited, so these results need confirmation in a larger population.”

The researchers found that walking at least 3,967 steps a day was associated with a reduced risk of overall mortality, and walking 2,337 steps a day was linked to a decreased risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

Beyond these minimal step counts, there was a noticeable reduction in mortality risk with each additional 500 to 1,000 steps: an extra 500 steps correlated with a 7% lower risk of cardiovascular disease-related death, while an additional 1,000 steps corresponded to a 15% lower risk of death from any cause.

The study did not identify an upper limit, indicating that the health benefits of walking increase with higher step counts.

“Our study confirms that more walking is better. We found that this applies regardless of gender, age, living in temperate, subtropical, subpolar regions of the world, or mixed climate regions.

Furthermore, our analysis suggests that just 4,000 steps a day significantly reduces deaths from any cause, requiring even fewer steps to reduce deaths from cardiovascular diseases,” noted one of the study’s co-authors.

Sedentary lifestyles have been linked to increased risks of death from cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and a higher likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes.

While the global prevalence of physical exercise has decreased in recent years, the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 further reduced activity levels.

Researchers state that current findings demonstrate that even the smallest transition from inactivity to low-level physical activity yields health benefits.

Banach mentioned, “In the era of increasingly advanced medications targeted at specific conditions like cardiovascular diseases, I believe we should always emphasize lifestyle changes, including diet and exercise, which were the focus of our analysis, as potentially equally if not more effective in reducing cardiovascular risk and prolonging life.”

The strength of this meta-analysis lies in its large sample size and its inclusion of studies with step counts exceeding 16,000 steps a day.

However, there are limitations. Since the analysis is based on observational studies, it can’t establish a causal link between step count and reduced mortality, only an association.

Additionally, the impact of step counts wasn’t tested among patients with different diseases; participants in the included studies were generally healthy.

This research was published in the “European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.”