Did you get your steps in today? Well, a new study shows your goal may not have to be as high as it once was to help your health.
The study, published this week in The Lancet, found that walking about 7,000 steps per day reduces the risk of several serious health outcomes, including a roughly 47 per cent drop in the overall risk of dying.
Scientists analyzed 57 studies of more than 160,000 adults, finding that those who walked 7,000 steps also saw their risk of cardiovascular disease drop 25 per cent and their dementia risk decrease by 38 per cent.
Just 7,000 steps also resulted in a 37 per cent lower risk of death from cancer and a 47 per cent drop in dying from cardiovascular disease.
But the study found that even a moderate amount, 4,000 steps, could still see better health outcomes, with a 36 per cent drop in overall risk of death compared with 2,000 steps.
“It reinforces the message that some is better than none and more is better than some,” said Mark Tremblay, a senior scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute.
The 7,000 steps could also be “more realistic” for people to achieve, the study notes, when compared with the 10,000 steps previously believed to be needed.
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A 2019 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine says the origin of 10,000 steps is still not clear, but that it “likely derives” from the trade name of a pedometer sold in 1965 by Yamasa Clock and Instrument Company in Japan. The device was called Manpo-kei, which translates to “10,000 steps metre” in Japanese.
In fact, the Lancet study found that for most health conditions, the risk level did not drop much further when the number of steps surpassed 7,000.
Scientists say people don’t have to be strict on numbers
Tremblay stressed that while 7,000 or 10,000 are good numbers to aim for, people should not be that strict with themselves.
“If you’re currently walking the dog 100 metres, if you can forget about the target of 100 metres and walk 150 metres some day, awesome,” he said.
“If you walk 100 metres a little bit faster some days, awesome. If you’re used to doing it just Monday, Wednesday, Friday and you can do it every day of the week, awesome, you’re going to reap benefits.
“If we can get people to understand that, rather than memorizing 10,000 or 7,000 or 150 minutes a week or whatever, that’s the nudge on a population level that we want people to do.”
The study’s researchers do, however, caution that some figures may not be as accurate, as they come from a smaller number of studies.
Exercise guidelines by the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology recommend at least 150 minutes per week of moderate to vigorous aerobic physical activity.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation notes that this can include a brisk 10-minute walk, and that if short on time, “any physical activity is better than none.”
Tremblay, who was a member of the panel that developed Canada’s 24-hour movement guideline for adults, backed that message.
“With the evidence we have now and with the computing power we have, there is no reason why we stick with this one-size-fits-all approach to public health guidelines,” he said.
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