by Maria Giovanna Faiella
According to new research, already taking about 4,000 steps a day begins to reduce the risk of mortality from any cause and from cardiovascular disease. The cardiologist’s comment
Take ten thousand steps a day to stay healthy and live long? Don’t feel guilty if your pedometer stops below the goal set by the World Health Organization. According to a new study, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, four thousand steps a day would be enough to significantly lower the risk of death from any cause, and about 2,400 steps to reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease. That there is no “magic number” of steps to take every day is demonstrated by the numerous studies published in scientific journals that have followed one another over the years, each of which proposes its own “recipe”. But what’s really important?
I study
The authors of the meta-analysis examined 17 different studies involving a total of almost 227,000 people followed on average for 7 years to evaluate the health impact of the various walking “performances”. Well, already taking about 4,000 steps a day begins to reduce the risk of mortality from any cause, while taking about 2,400 steps a day decreases the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease. In particular, according to the study, each extra thousand steps per day (for a total of 5,000 steps) is associated with a 15 percent reduction in the risk of dying from any cause, while taking 500 more steps per day (4,500 ) associated with a 7 percent decrease in deaths from cardiovascular disease. For the younger population, the greatest improvement was observed in individuals who took between 7,000 and 13,000 steps per day, while for those aged 60 and older it was between 6,000 and 10,000 steps. The study confirms that the more you walk, the better, regardless of age and where you live.
The best medicine
So is walking the best “medicine”? Comments Dr. Mauro Pepi, director of the clinical area of the Monzino IRCCS Cardiological Center in Milan: It was already known that a sedentary lifestyle is linked to a deterioration in health in general and specifically the performance of the heart. Regardless of the absolute value of steps to take every day, which is difficult to determine, the message of this new study is clear: it confirms that even a limited increase in daily physical activity – in this case the most banal, i.e. walking – involves greater health benefits and a lower risk of death, cardiovascular and in general. Walking within everyone’s reach, healthy people but also the elderly and individuals who are not in optimal health conditions; we do it all the time, every time we go out to work, at home, in other places. The more you walk, the more the health benefits continue to increase.
(you may also be interested in: Counterorder, nothing 10,000 steps 3,000 steps are enough to stay healthy (but at a fast pace);
August 10, 2023 (change August 10, 2023 | 16:26)
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