You have surely already heard that it is necessary to take at least 10,000 steps a day in order to stay in good shape. However, this figure would not need to be so high to help reduce the risk of mortality: this is what scientists say in new research published in theEuropean Journal of Preventive Cardiology.
Taking just under 4,000 steps would reduce the risk of death
Nearly seventeen cohort studies comprising 226,889 people were included in this meta-analysis. The researchers thus wanted to know if there was a “optimum number” of steps to take per day in order to guarantee a good general state of health, but above all to limit the development of cardiovascular diseases.
A total of 7,574 deaths “all causes” and 1,884 deaths related to cardiovascular pathologies were recorded. The participants were divided into several groups according to whether they walked a lot or not. The minimum number of steps was 3.967 for overall mortality, or 2.237 for mortality from heart disease.
If these thresholds already made it possible to lower the probabilities of death, the scientists noted that each increase in 1,000 steps was associated with a15% lower risk of all-cause mortality“. In terms of mortality due to cardiovascular disease, an increase in 500 steps would be enough to reduce it by 7%.
It is not necessarily necessary to take 10,000 steps a day!
So what about this famous goal of 10,000 steps per day? Participants who reached and even exceeded this number presented a risk of death respectively reduced by 67% and 77% depending on the cause of death. “Our study confirms that the more you walk, the better“, therefore advances Maciej Banach, main author of the work interviewed by The Guardian. “We found that this applied to both men and women, regardless of age“, he specifies.
However, it would not necessarily be necessary to take 10,000 steps a day in order to stay healthy. For the scientist, “changes“in our way of life, including for example a varied and balanced diet and the practice of regular physical activity (such as walking) would be enough to guard against certain diseases.
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