A new study has shown that taking ten thousand steps a day can help not only those with an active lifestyle, but also those who are more sedentary.
It has long been known that ten thousand steps a day is the magic number needed to reduce the risk of illness and early death. What the researchers didn’t know was whether this amount could have the same effect even on people who are sedentary for most of the day.
That was until now, because an investigation concluded that, among this group, taking nine to ten thousand steps a day reduces the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases by 21% and the chances of dying early by 39%, according to the study published in Tuesday, March 5, in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
The results are “in no way a get-out-of-jail-free card for people who are sedentary for excessive periods of time,” said the study’s lead author, Matthew Ahmadi, MD, in a press release.
“However, they contain an important public health message that all movement matters and that people can and should try to offset the health consequences of unavoidable sedentary time by increasing their daily step count,” added Ahmadi, postdoctoral researcher at the Charles Perkins Center at the University of Sydney, Australia.
The authors used data from more than 72,000 people who had taken part in the UK Biobank study, which tracked the health outcomes of more than half a million people aged 40 to 69 in the UK for at least 10 years. Between 2013 and 2015, 24 hours a day for a total of seven days, participants in the new study wore activity trackers on their wrists to monitor their daily step count and time spent being sedentary (sitting or lying down while is awake).
The average time spent being sedentary was 10.6 hours per day, so the authors classified 10.5 hours or more as “high sedentary time”, while less than that was considered “low sedentary time”.
Over a period of seven years, on average, the authors followed the participants’ health trajectories, checking hospitalization and death records. They found that, for people with low and high sedentary time, taking a number of steps greater than 2,200 per day was associated with a lower probability of developing cardiovascular disease or dying early, with the nine to ten thousand steps supporting the greater benefits.
“It’s clear that the more time you spend walking, the less time you spend sitting, and vice versa,” said David Katz, an expert in preventative and lifestyle medicine who was not involved in the study, in an email. .
“Inevitably, those who walk more sit less and benefit from both. Those who sit more walk less and benefit from both,” added Katz, who is also president and founder of the True Health Initiative, a coalition global team of experts dedicated to evidence-based, non-profit lifestyle medicine. “Both are important – but neither ‘cancels out’ the effects of the other.”
Increase steps to reduce disease risk
The authors don’t have data on the exact activities participants did to gain their steps, but their study is one of many that show that “being active every day does wonders for your health,” said Andrew Freeman, a preventive cardiologist. and director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver, who was not involved in the study.
“Exercise does a wide variety of things,” Freeman added. “It really tests and stresses the cardiovascular system and the heart is a muscle and, like any other muscle, it needs to be worked to stay in shape.”
Walking, a common exercise for reaching step count goals, helps burn calories, maintain weight and improve bone density, Freeman said.
Some of the benefits for disease and premature death risk may also be related to how exercise improves blood pressure, “one of the most potent killers of people in the world,” Freeman said.
If you want to become more active, 10,000 steps can be equivalent to a walk of several miles that can be done in a couple of hours, Freeman said. But achieving that goal doesn’t always have to mean taking a huge chunk of time out of your day.
Before cars simplified travel, humans walked up to dozens of miles a day without thinking about it, Freeman said. The same has been possible in cities with high walking capacity or good public transport.
“The human body is designed to move a lot. We’re not supposed to be sitting at a computer for 12 hours a day and barely moving,” Freeman said. “The question is: how can we include this in our day?”
You can divide the exercise into 30-minute segments, one of which should be of significant intensity or to the point where you can’t hold a conversation, he added.
Some easier ways to take steps include using steps instead of the elevator or escalators when possible or parking further away from a store. Some companies and employees have started holding meetings while walking or placing portable treadmills under their desks so they can exercise while they work.
“Exercise is great for you and is truly the magic elixir that targets virtually every disease we treat,” Freeman said. “If you are sedentary, don’t despair – get up now, get moving and make it happen.”
