International study shows: The more you walk, the lower your risk of death
About 4000 steps a day will be enough to improve your health
According to SINC, the number of steps you need to take every day to start seeing health benefits less than previously thought, according to a study that estimates the result of 17 different analyzes from around the world carried out so far.
Among the findings of the article published in the journal European Journal of Preventive Cardiologyit is emphasized that walk at least 3967 steps day begins to reduce the risk of death from any cause, and this 2337 steps per day reduces the risk of death from cardiovascular disease.
The more you walk, the greater the health benefits
Researchers led by a cardiologist at the University of Lodz (Poland) Maciej Banachexamined the physical activity of 226,889 people and confirmed that the more you walkthe more health benefits.
So, The risk of death from any cause or from cardiovascular disease decreases significantly with every additional 500 to 1,000 steps.. An increase of 1,000 steps per day was associated with a 15% reduction in the risk of death from any cause.
The scientists further calculated that even if people walked up to 20,000 steps per day, the health benefits continued to increase.
End a sedentary lifestyle
There is compelling evidence that sedentary lifestyle This may contribute to increased cardiovascular disease and reduced life expectancy. Research has 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 populations in higher-income countries are less mobile than in lower-income countries (37% vs. 16%).
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Lack of physical activity is the fourth leading cause of death in the worldwhile 3.2 million deaths per year are associated with a sedentary lifestyle.
Personalize your lifestyle changes
This meta-analysis was also able to analyze whether differences existed based on age, gender, or the part of the world a person lives in, based on following participants for an average of seven years. It should be noted that the average age was 64 years and 49% of participants were women.
People aged 60 years and older had a smaller reduction in the risk of death than people under 60 years old.
IN elderly peopleA 42% risk reduction in those who walked between 6000 and 10,000 steps per daywhile young adults who walked between 7,000 and 13,000 steps per day had a 49% reduction in risk.
Among the limitations of the study, the authors keep in mind that this is an observational study, so it cannot demonstrate that increasing the number of steps cause contraction risk of death, but only that this activity “connected” to this reduction.
Finally, the effect of step counting has not been proven in people with various medical conditions, since in general all participants were healthy when they entered the studio. It also did not account for differences in race and socioeconomic status, as well as step counting methods, which may not have been identical across all studies included in this meta-analysis.