Yanis Darras
Doing physical activity is the message from public authorities. A message supported by a new English study, which highlights that taking the stairs reduces the chance of dying from an illness by 20%. To achieve this result, scientists compared the data of nearly 460,000 people over the long term.
What if walking the stairs instead of taking the elevator could save precious months of life? This is what a study by researchers from the British Universities of East Anglia and the Norfok and Norwich University Hospital Foundation Trust reveals. Thanks to the analysis of data from 460,000 participants, all aged between 35 and 85, scientists managed to prove that doing moderate physical activity, in particular preferring to climb the stairs rather than taking the elevator, made it possible to reduce by 24 % the risk of death, all diseases combined, and even 39% the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease or stroke.
Fight against a sedentary lifestyle
“Your heart rate increases, your cardiac output increases and your circulatory state improves,” explains Doctor Manish Panrikh to CNews. Objective: to fight against a sedentary lifestyle, a scourge in Europe and particularly in France. With the Olympic Games being held in less than three months, nearly 95% of the French population suffers from a lack of physical activity. A problem, which pushes Emmanuel Macron on his social networks to increase calls to encourage citizens to move at least 30 minutes a day.
The study reveals that climbing just 5 floors per day, or around 50 steps, reduces the risk of health problems by 20%. To achieve this, the authors of the study analyzed the profiles of the participants according to their illnesses, their history or whether or not they smoked. Thus, the results smoothed over 12 years show that stair climbers were able to fight heart disease better than others. Enough to convince the last supporters of the elevator to abandon it from time to time.