Health - Less than 10,000 steps a day is optimum for good health

 

In recent years increasing attention has been paid to the value of walking and 'step counts' with varying numbers quoted as to the number of steps per day that is optimum for health. This blog has previously published recent research on this subject that can be found at these links:

• Recommended steps by age group

• Exercise and walking to avoid Alzheimers disease

Further insights are provided in this article -

Do we really need 10,000 steps a day?

Canva, Ono Kosuki/Pexels, Billion Photos/Canva, Josh Blake/Canva, The Conversation

Hunter Bennett, Adelaide University

You’ve probably heard that hitting 10,000 steps a day is the key to health and longevity.

This magic number feels like a medical rule, handed down by doctors across the globe.

But where did it come from? And is it even true?

Let’s step back to Japan in 1964

Believe it or not, but the infamous 10,000 steps a day recommendation didn’t come from a research laboratory.

In fact, it is not scientific at all.

It came from a Japanese pedometer called the manpo-kei which translates to “10,000-step meter”.

This pedometer went on sale just after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, at a time when there was a growing worry people in Japan weren’t moving enough.

The number was mainly chosen was because it was catchy and easy to remember. The Japanese kanji character for 10,000 – 万 – even looks a little like a walking person, which may have played a role in deciding on the number.

So 10,000 was a slogan to sell a step-counter, not an evidence-based recommendation.

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So many ideas about what makes us sick, or keeps us well, sound plausible. Early studies might sound promising. But then something gets twisted. In this series, we investigate how a grain of truth ends up as a common health myth. And we untangle what went wrong along the way.

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So what does the research say?

Getting 10,000 steps a day can be a useful goal, and it will have a positive impact on your health. But you can reap health benefits from even less.

A recently published systematic review combined the results of 57 studies and more than 160,000 adults to examine the relationship between daily steps and health. Interestingly, they found 7,000 steps a day was where health benefits were maximised.

Reaching 7,000 steps a day was linked to a 47% lower risk of dying early, a 25% lower risk of cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke), a 14% lower risk of type 2 diabetes, a 38% lower risk of dementia, a 22% lower some of depression and a 28% lower risk of falls.

Some health benefits started well before 7,000 steps.

The researchers found going from about 2,000 to 4,000 steps a day makes a real difference. These health benefits then increase again slightly from 4,000 to 7,000 steps a day, after which the benefits start to plateau.

These results align closely with other research looking at all types of physical activity, where going from being inactive to moderately active yields the largest health improvements. Moving from a moderate to high level of activity does provide additional benefits, but these are much smaller in magnitude.

Why walking is good for you

Walking is a form of “aerobic” exercise. It raises your heart rate and places stress on your respiratory, muscular and cardiovascular systems.

If you do it regularly, it can improve your heart and metabolic health, and reduce your bodyweight.

Walking can also reduce stress and improve mental health, possibly due improvements in feelings of self-esteem and self-efficacy that comes with regular movement.

Steps versus minutes

There is some additional nuance that needs to be considered when discussing how far you walk each day: how hard you walk.

Most people choose a walking pace that pushes them into the realm of “moderate intensity” exercise. However, the health benefits of exercise scale up with exercise intensity: you get more bang for your buck from more intense exercise.

So, if you pick up the pace and move towards a vigorous exercise intensity (where it’s hard to maintain a conversation), you will get larger health benefits in less time. This is why official exercise guidelines treat 75 minutes of vigorous activity as roughly equal to 150 minutes of moderate activity.

With this in mind, rather than focusing on steps, you might be better off focusing on the number of minutes you accumulate each week.

Recent research even suggests short bursts of high-intensity exercise spread across the day can have surprising health benefits.

So, if you’re short on time, walking faster is one of the simplest ways to get more out of that same walk.

But walking alone isn’t enough

Walking covers the “aerobic” side of fitness well. However, it doesn’t really address the “anaerobic” side.

Anaerobic fitness refers to your muscle mass, muscle strength, and power. Having higher anaerobic fitness is linked to having a better quality of life and lower risk of mortality as you get older.

This is why most health authorities recommend muscle-strengthening activities (such as lifting weights) at least two days a week.

This will also help reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes, while also helping you avoid falls and stay independent for longer as you get older.

If you can aim to hit 7,000 steps each day, and add in weight training twice per week, you’re going to have most of your bases covered from a health perspective.

Hunter Bennett, Lecturer in Exercise Science, Adelaide University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Health - recommended steps by age group

 

In various lifestyle magazines and health journals, the benefits of daily walking have often been cited with varying distances and number of steps mentioned. Good evidence and factual information is missing from many of the published articles leaving the reader wondering, how much should I do ? Research does exist and a summary of findings reveals there are some recommended step counts by age group -

Children and teens: 10,000 - 14,000 steps per day for growth and fitness (this would include playing sports so the number of steps would be easily achieved),

Adults under 60 years of age: 8,000 - 10,000 steps per day for optimal cardiovascular and metabolic health,

Adults over 60 years of age: 6,000 - 8,000 steps per day to reduce chronic disease and maintain mobility. The estimation of 3,000 steps per day to reduce the risk of Alzeheimers from the Harvard University study is also valid in this context.

Overall large scale studies have shown that 7,000 steps per day is an optimum level linked to significant reductions in mortality risk. This matches with epidemiologists' recommendations, highlighting a range of 6,000 - 8,000 steps as a method for reducing dementia risk with significant protection against memory and cognitive functional decline.

Health - Exercise and walking to avoid Alzeheimers disease

                                               GPT-5 AI generated

How many daily steps does it take to reduce the risk of serious disease and promote good health ? Apparently for some age groups, its less than originally thought. The oft-quoted 10,000 daily steps has long been unmasked as being based on no evidence or science at all but rather a Japanese marketing campaign. Recent studies with actual research and using live subjects concluded around 9,000 steps per day was optimum for good health.

A study from Harvard University has since found that older people and particularly those at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease require only 3,000 steps per day. The study team led by Wai-Ying Yau analysed physical activity data from 296 cognitively healthy people aged between 50 and 90 years of age. Using a step-tracking device and brain imaging to obtain a baseline measurement of misfolded proteins (tau and beta-amyloid) that are suspected of causing Alzheimers, the subjects were measured every two to three years for a period of between 3 and 14 years. The researchers found that the levels of accumulation of misfolded tau was substantially slowed by taking between 3,000 and 5,000 steps per day. The exercise had no effect on beta-amyloid however this protein is less implicated in causing Alzheimers than tau. Between 5,000 and  7,500 steps per day was even more effective with a reduction in cognitive decline of 54 per cent compared to being inactive. 

Why is this exercise so effective ? The hypothesis is that exercise reduces inflammation which is associated as a key factor in Alzheimers. Blood flow is also boosted to the brain and levels of protective hormones are increased.