For years now, we’ve been told that 10-thousand steps should be our daily goal, but some have questioned whether that really is the magic number. And it turns out, there is something special about 10-thousand. It’s the sweet spot for lower risk of disease and death, but how fast you walk could be just as important, according to new research.
A study finds that walking 10-thousand steps a day is linked to less cardiovascular disease (including heart disease, stroke and heart failure) as well as 13 types of cancer and dementia.
- Taking 10-thousand steps is about the same as walking four or five miles, depending on your stride, but the new research suggests you don’t have to take that many to get the health benefits.
- It finds that getting 98-hundred steps lowers the risk of dementia by 50% and taking just 38-hundred steps a day lowers it by 25%.
- Every 2-thousand steps you take each day may lower the risk for premature death by eight to 11%, according to a related study.
- Both studies included 78-thousand 500 participants, who were all between 40 and 79 years old and wore physical activity trackers and had their health monitored for an average of seven years.
- Researchers also found that a faster walking pace, like a power walk, increases the health benefits, further lowering the risk for dementia, heart disease, cancer and early death.
“The take home message here is that for protective health benefits, people could not only ideally aim for 10-thousand steps a day, but also aim to walk faster,” explains co-lead study author Matthew Ahmadi from the University of Sydney.
Source: NY Post