To establish an objective based on science, an international team of researchers sift through 57 studies on 160,000 people in total, before publishing its work in the journal Lancet Public Health.
Walking 7000 steps every day makes it considerably lower the risk of having many serious health problems, according to the largest study of convincing data to date, published Thursday. 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 an objective based on science, an international team of researchers has therefore sifted through 57 studies on 160,000 people in total, before publishing its work in the journal Lancet Public Health. They reveal that walking 7000 steps per day reduced by almost half the risk of premature death, all causes combined, compared to the fact of making only 2,000.
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“The most important gains occur from 7000 steps”
The study has also looked at health problems that has not been examined so far as research on the profits of walking. Walking 7000 steps per day would reduce 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 7000 steps, beyond they tend to stabilize”he added. If the walking speed varies from person to person, 7000 steps represent approximately one hour of walking per day.
For the researcher, those who already manage to take 10,000 steps or more on a daily basis must persevere. Conversely, those who judge the 7000 steps difficult to reach, must not “Not to be discouraged”. “If you only do 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. For him, 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.
