Dr. Sean Heffron, assistant professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health and the NYU Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease, said in a previous article that many people who use fitness trackers believe walking 10,000 steps a day means they’re exercising enough, but there’s no solid evidence to support this number.
Other studies have suggested that 7,000 steps a day is a good goal to lower your risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, type 2 diabetes, cancer, depression, and premature death.
But new research, published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, investigated the impact of different step thresholds.
The new study focused specifically on older women with an average age of 71. Compared with those who didn’t reach this threshold any day of the week, those who reached 4,000 steps one or two days a week had a 26% lower risk of death from all causes and a 27% lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease.
A third day of at least 4,000 steps was even better, with a 40% lower risk of death from any cause. “I think this is important because walking 4,000 steps a day two or three days a week is achievable, even for older adults,” Hamaya said.
Research suggests that walking 5,000 to 7,000 steps a day can further reduce risk. However, the primary driver of prevention of disease and premature death is the average number of steps taken over a week.
This article is excerpted from CNN.
