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The objective of the 10,000 daily steps is not based on any medical study recall the authors of the works, published in the journal “The Lancet Public Health”.
Physical activity – No need to walk 10,000 steps a day to considerably lower the risk of having many serious health problems. 7,000 are enough, according to the largest study of convincing data to date, published this Thursday, July 24 in the scientific journal The Lancet Public Health.
Easy to memorize and taken up in mobile applications for smartphones, the objective of the 10,000 daily steps is not based on any medical study. Generally followed by people concerned with preserving their health, it actually comes from a marketing campaign from the 1960s for a Japanese pedometer.
To establish a goal based on science, an international team of researchers has therefore sifted 57 studies on 160,000 people in total. They reveal that walking 7,000 steps a day reduced by almost half the risk of premature death, all causes combined, compared to only 2,000.
Health profits from 7,000 steps
The study has also looked at health problems that has not been examined so far as research on the profits of walking. Walking 7,000 steps a day would drop the risk of dementia by 38 %, 22 % that of depression and 14 % the risk of diabetes. This would also reduce the risk of having cancer and falling, according to the study, which warns that this hypothesis is based on fewer evidence.
“There is no need to reach 10,000 steps a day to have major benefits for your health”summed up with AFP Paddy Dempsey, co -author of the study and medical researcher at the University of Cambridge. “The most important gains occur from 7,000 steps, beyond they tend to stabilize”he added.
If the walking speed varies from person to person, 7,000 steps represent approximately one hour of walking per day. For Paddy Dempsey, those who already manage to take 10,000 steps or more on a daily basis must persevere. Conversely, those who judge the 7,000 steps difficult to reach, must “ not be discouraged “.
“If you only take 2,000 to 3,000 steps a day, try to add 1,000: this represents only 10 to 15 minutes of light walking spread over the day”he said.
Do not discourage with too high a goal
For the expert, public health messages must stop targeting the “ perfection »and emphasizing the fact that even a small increase in physical activity can make a big difference. An opinion shared by Anne Vuillemin, professor in science and techniques of physical and sporting activities at Côte d’Azur University. “A too high goal can also discourage people”she objected to franceinfo. « It is good to have recommendations and thresholds like that of the 7 000 steps and say that we are tending towards this objective gradually. The more we do, the better. »»
As a reminder, global health of health (WHO) recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate to Intense physical activity per week.