Latest news with #healthbenefits
CTV News
4 hours ago
- Health
- CTV News
Don't get overwhelmed by 10,000 steps. Here's how many you may really need
Walking is a good measure of activity level, but it is not the only way to get good movement. (Pablo Rogat's Photostream/via CNN Newsource) Does the popular activity benchmark of walking 10,000 steps a day feel like too distant of a goal? Don't worry, you can get health benefits just by moving a little more than you already are, new research has found. When possible, aiming for 7,000 steps a day is a good objective, said lead study author Dr. Melody Ding, professor of public health at the University of Sydney. Ding and a team of researchers reviewed 31 different studies on the impacts of step count on health markers, including cardiovascular disease, dementia, type 2 diabetes, cancer, depressive symptoms and early death, according to the study published Wednesday in the journal The Lancet Public Health. Compared with people who got 2,000 steps a day, which researchers considered the minimal possible step count for adults, people who took 7,000 daily steps had a 47% lower risk of death from all causes. The more active adults also had a 25% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and a 38% lower risk of dementia. Many people who use fitness trackers see 10,000 steps as a sign they are getting enough movement in a day, but that number is not based on good evidence, said Dr. Sean Heffron, assistant professor of medicine at New York University Langone Health and NYU Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease. He was not involved in the research. Aiming for 10,000 steps likely originated from a marketing campaign for an early pedometer manufactured in Japan by Yamasa Clock and Instrument Company that was called Manpo-kei, or '10,000 steps meter' in Japanese, according to a 2019 study. Cardiologist Dr. Martha Gulati said she is usually skeptical when the benchmark is such a nice round number. Gulati was also not involved in the research. However, it is clear from this study and the existing data that moving more is fundamental for good health and is usually a sound idea, Heffron said. 'More than 7k doesn't do harm, and may even offer some additional benefits,' Ding said in an email. 'If one is already very active and doing 10+k a day, they definitely don't need to hold back and go back to 7k!' Why steps matter The study is a meta-analysis, which analyzes evidence across many studies and is one of the highest-quality kinds of research for making clinical recommendations, Heffron said. Measuring step counts as the recent study did is important not because walking is the only activity that matters, but rather because it is a good way to get a fairly accurate estimate of overall exercise levels, said Gulati, director of preventive cardiology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. If a patient tells her they did half an hour of exercise, Gulati has to not only trust that they estimated the time accurately but also guess at the intensity of that time spent exercising, she said. On the other hand, if a patient is wearing a tracking device that said they walked 5 miles, that impact is clear whether they walked it, ran it, did it in one go or broke it up, she added. Unfortunately, many people are quite sedentary, but the baseline for human bodies is to be active, Heffron said. It makes sense that moving less is linked to more health problems. 'The less you move, the less your muscles get engaged, the less exerkines, which are these special chemicals that are released with muscle contractions that benefit levels of inflammation, benefit blood vessel health, but also improve insulin sensitivity and improve blood pressure, and probably have some impact on cognitive function,' he said. 'As there's less of that movement, the rates of all the detrimental conditions increase.' Physical activity also improves muscular strength, which can help protect against falls and fractures, Gulati said. From a cardiovascular perspective, exercise is linked to lower blood pressure, improved cholesterol and a better response to insulin, she added. You don't need a gym to get moving Most Americans could stand to move more, Gulati said. For people who aren't moving much, aiming for 7,000 steps a day may seem like a lot, but just getting started makes a big difference. 'Accumulating daily steps offers a broad range of health benefits. Even low step counts, such as 4k, offers health benefits than lower step counts,' Ding said in an email. The biggest bang for your buck in terms of your health comes from going from no exercise to adding any movement –– and then gradually building up to more regular activity from there, Heffron added. Maybe walking isn't your favorite way to get moving. Do things you enjoy, such as dancing, gardening, playing pickleball or hiking with a friend, Heffron said. Getting to the gym and dedicating a block of time to activity may not always be feasible, so he recommends finding ways in your day to add in a little bit more movement. You can get up every hour at work for a five-minute walk, which incorporates 45 minutes of activity in your day, he said. If you take the bus or subway, getting off a stop or two early and walking the rest of the way can also help you meet your fitness goals. 'It will add a few minutes onto your commute, but every one of those minutes is going to be involved in physical activity,' Heffron said. 'That all adds up little by little over the course of a day and week.' Getting more steps, however, may not be the best guideline for everyone, particularly those who are limited in their capacity to walk, Ding added. For seated exercises, try hand cycling or chair exercises with or without weights, Bishnu Pada Das, a certified personal trainer based in Kolkata, India, said in a previous CNN story. By Madeline Holcombe, CNN
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
The remarkable truth about coffee and what it really does to your body: Top expert reveals how much you should drink per day... and why it's far less than you'd think
Whether it's a flat white, espresso or an energy drink, caffeine is firmly entrenched as the UK's favourite legal stimulant. We collectively sip an estimated 98million cups of coffee a day - and research is increasingly showing that apart from the taste, regular coffee drinkers also enjoy a range of health benefits, including a lower risk of heart disease and dementia.
BBC News
6 hours ago
- Health
- BBC News
How many steps do you take a day?
Everyone's heard that it's good for us to take 10,000 steps a day, but scientists are now saying we may not need to walk as far as we think to get the health benefits.A new study by the Lancet Public Health, suggests 7000 steps every day is enough to combat serious disease, boost your brainpower, and help you live a longer, healthier life. The study says while 10,000 steps is still a good goal for those who are more active, 7000 may be "more realistic and achievable for some"."We have this perception we should be doing 10,000 steps a day," says lead author Dr Melody Ding, "but it's not evidence based".What do you think? How many steps do you take a day? And where do you stomp around if you want to get your step count up? Let us know in the comments below. A step too far The 10,000 steps goal was created as part of a marketing campaign in Japan in the the lead up to the 1965 Tokyo Olympics, a brand of pedometer was launched called the manpo-kei, which translates as "10,000-step meter".Health organisations around the world then started using this as an unofficial guideline, and it stuck. However, the new study looked at previous research data between 2014 and 2025, and found that those who walked 7000 steps instead of 2000 step reduced their chances of having bad mental health and life-threatening difference between 2000 and 7000 is stark, but after 7000, any health benefits increase only marginally.
Telegraph
10 hours ago
- Health
- Telegraph
Revealed: The number of steps you need to improve your life expectancy
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.'
The Independent
15 hours ago
- Health
- The Independent
Walking 7,000 steps a day is enough to boost health
Walking 7,000 steps a day may be enough to protect against a number of diseases, a new study suggests. While many people have the goal to get 10,000 steps in their daily routine, some find this target difficult to achieve. But new research suggests 'sizeable' health benefits – including a reduced risk of dementia, heart disease and premature death – can still be seen from fewer daily steps. Even modest step counts of 4,000 steps a day can reap benefits over very low levels of activity, experts found. But experts noted that '10,000 steps per day will still be better than 7,000 steps' – with the higher step count leading to more health benefits. The new study, led by academics from the University of Sydney in Australia, saw researchers examine data from dozens of studies from around the world, including in the UK, on tens of thousands of adults. People who walked 7,000 steps each day appeared to have a protective effect against a number of diseases including: a 25% lower risk of heart disease; a 14% reduced risk of type 2 diabetes; a 38% lower risk of dementia and 22% reduced risk of depression. The researchers also found that when people walked 7,000 daily steps, compared to walking 2,000 steps, they were 47% less likely to die during the follow-up periods of the studies analysed. And while the number of steps walked did not sway whether or not a person got cancer, people who walked more steps were significantly less likely to die from cancer – with 37% lower odds of cancer death compared to people who walked fewer steps. 'Although 10 000 steps per day can still be a viable target for those who are more active, 7,000 steps per day is associated with clinically meaningful improvements in health outcomes and might be a more realistic and achievable target for some,' the authors wrote in the journal Lancet Public Health. They added: 'Even modest daily step counts were associated with health benefits. '7,000 steps per day was associated with sizeable risk reductions across most outcomes, compared with the reference of 2,000 steps per day.' Commenting on the study, Dr Daniel Bailey, Reader – Sedentary Behaviour and Health, Brunel University of London, said: 'The finding that doing 5000-7000 steps per day 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. 'This study suggested that 5000-7000 steps per day can significantly reduce the risk of many health outcomes, but that does not mean you cannot get benefits if you don't meet this target. 'The study also found that health risks were reduced with each 1000 extra steps per day, up to a maximum of 12,000 steps per day. So just adding more steps from your starting point can have important benefits for health.' Dr Andrew Scott, senior Lecturer in clinical exercise physiology at the University of Portsmouth, added: 'In most cases the 10,000 steps per day will still be better than 7,000 steps, just by decreasing margins of health benefit return. 'More important than the exact number of steps, it demonstrates that overall, more is always better and people should not focus too much on the numbers, particularly on days where activity is limited. 'The steps per day is useful when people's exercise is weight-bearing, however cycling, swimming and rowing are not well-represented by the steps per day model.'
