Revealed: The number of steps you need to improve your life expectancy

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2 days ago

Walking 7,000 steps a day is the sweet spot for preventing many chronic diseases that can lead to an early death, a major study has shown.
While the goal of 10,000 daily steps has become firmly established in the public consciousness, an international team of researchers found even a modest amount of walking brings major benefits.
British scientists said it finally 'debunked the myth' of 10,000 steps and should encourage people to try and hit the lower target.
The major review of 57 studies involving 160,000 adults, which was published in The Lancet, concluded that for most conditions health benefits tended to level off beyond 7,000 steps.
Hitting 7,000 steps a day was found to reduce all-cause-mortality by 47 per cent, cardiovascular disease by 25 per cent, cancer by six per cent, diabetes by 14 per cent, dementia by 38 per cent and depression by 22 per cent.
Health benefits were also apparent from 4,000 steps when compared to 'inactive' people who walked just 2,000, the study led by the University of Sydney found. Every extra 1,000 steps brought better outcomes, researchers found.
Commenting on the study, Steven Harridge, professor of human and applied physiology at King's College London, said: 'Humans are designed to be physically active – our evolutionary heritage as hunter gatherers.
'There has been debate about the amount of activity an individual should be doing with 10,000 steps as a generalised target, not well evidenced.
'This paper shows that 7,000 steps is sufficient for reducing the risk for most diseases covered, and 10, 000 steps does not confer much additional benefit.'
According to World Health Organisation data, insufficient physical activity is the fourth most frequent cause of death in the world, with 3.2 million deaths a year related to physical inactivity.
Many health organisations recommend hitting 10,000 steps a day, although there is little evidence for the target, which is believed to have arisen from a Japanese marketing campaign in the 1960s.
In the run-up to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the company Yamasa sought to capitalise on the sudden interest in fitness, so designed the world's first wearable step-counter. They called it the Manpo-kei, or '10,000-step meter'.
The company appears to have chosen the figure at random, as a fun goal, but it has stuck ever since.
The new paper found that for heart disease, walking more than 7,000 steps was beneficial, but for most conditions there was little gain from putting in more effort.Experts said it was still unclear why walking brings such striking benefits but said it is likely to increase cardiorespiratory fitness, which is known to be positively associated with better health and all-cause mortality outcomes.
Commenting on the research, Dr Daniel Bailey, an expert in sedentary behaviour and health at Brunel University of London, said the 7,000 steps target was more achievable for many people than 10,000 steps.
'Just adding more steps from your starting point can have important benefits for health,' he said.
'This study adds to existing evidence by showing that the more steps people do, the less their risk of developing different health conditions.
'The finding that doing 5,000-7,000 steps per day is beneficial, is an important addition to the literature which helps to debunk the myth that 10,000 steps per day should be the target for optimal health.'
The Alzheimer's Society also welcomed the study saying it demonstrated that inactivity is a major risk factor for dementia.
Dr Richard Oakley, associate director of research and innovation at the charity said: 'It adds to the evidence that what's good for the heart is good for the head.'
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