FORBES – People who walk at least 4,000 steps a day can substantially lower their risk of death from any cause, according to a recent study, which also found those who take fewer daily steps can still benefit from a reduced risk related to cardiovascular diseases—suggesting significant health benefits can be achieved starting with fairly light activity.
The research, which was published in a peer-reviewed study in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, is a meta-analysis of 17 studies around the world involving participants who “were generally healthy when they entered the studies analyzed.”
The “observational” study found that the more you walk, the greater the health benefits, but taking as little as 3,967 daily steps could reduce the risk of death from any cause and 2,337 steps a day may be sufficient to reduce the risk of dying from diseases of the heart and blood vessels.
The basis of the finding rests on the premise that people can cut the risk of death associated with cardiovascular disease by 7% for every additional 500 steps walked, and increasing the daily step count by 1,000 can lead to a substantial 15% reduction in the risk of dying from any cause.
Continuing to walk as many as 20,000 steps each day will consistently enhance health benefits, according to the study, which also recommends further confirmation with “larger groups of people,” though it did not determine whether there were benefits to taking more than 20,000 steps per day.
Although the study could not account for differences in race and socioeconomic status, the findings apply to everyone regardless of their gender, age or location … READ MORE.
