Walking 9,000 to 10,000 steps a day can reduce your risk of death and cardiovascular disease.

Each additional step up to about 10,000 steps per day reduces the risk of death and cardiovascular disease. (CVD), regardless of how much remaining time you spend sitting, was reported in a large population-based study conducted by the University of Sydney/Charles Perkins Center in Australia and published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Some previous studies have shown that A higher number of daily steps is associated with lower rates of mortality and cardiovascular disease., while others link high levels of sedentary behavior to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and death. However, none of these studies examined whether High levels of physical activity may offset or reduce the increased risk of death and cardiovascular disease associated with a sedentary lifestyle.

To solve this problem, the authors of a new study led by the University of Sydney and the Charles Perkins Center (Australia) turned to data from 72,174 people (average age 61 years; 58% women) participated in a study by UK Biobank, a large biomedical database, which used accelerometer on your wrist for seven days to measure your physical activity. Accelerometer data was used to estimate daily steps and time spent sedentary, i.e. sitting or lying down while awake.

Participants’ average daily step count was 6,222 steps per day, and they took 2,200 steps per day. (lowest 5% of daily steps among all participants) as a benchmark to estimate the effect of increasing step count on mortality and cardiovascular disease.

The average sedentary time was 10.6 hours per day, so study participants were considered to be sedentary for 10.5 hours per day. or more had high sedentary time, while those who were sedentary less than 10.5 hours per day had low sedentary time. During a mean follow-up period of 6.9 years, there were 1633 deaths and 6190 cardiovascular events.

Taking other potentially influential factors into account, the authors calculated that The optimal number of steps per day to counteract prolonged sedentary behavior was 9,000 to 10,000 steps per day, which reduced the risk of mortality by 39%. and the risk of cardiovascular disease by 21%. In both cases, 50% of the benefit was achieved when walking between 4,000 and 4,500 steps per day.

This is an observational study, so cause and effect cannot be determined. Although the large sample size and long follow-up reduced the risk of bias, the authors acknowledge the possibility that other unmeasured factors may have influenced their results. However, they conclude: “Any number of daily steps above the benchmark of 2,200 steps per day was associated with lower mortality. and the risk of cardiovascular disease with both light and long periods of sitting.