Your health, reduced risk of dangerous diseases, and a question of walking just 7,000 steps a day!

 

Your health, reduced risk of dangerous diseases, and a question of walking just 7,000 steps a day!

new study suggests that walking 7,000 steps a day can boost your brain power and help you fight off a range of illnesses.

This may be easier to achieve in practice than the 10,000-step target that is considered the norm.

The study, published in the Lancet Public Health, is linked to a reduced risk of serious health problems including cancer, dementia and heart disease.

Experts say the findings could encourage more people to keep a record of how many steps they take each day to improve their health.

Dr Melody Ding says we tend to think we should take 10,000 steps, but this is not evidence-based.

10,000 steps is about five miles or eight kilometers. But the exact distance will vary for each person, depending on their height, gender and walking speed, and faster walkers will have longer strides.

The term 10,000 steps dates back to the 1960s, when it was first used in

a marketing campaign in Japan. Before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, a brand introduced a pedometer called the Panpoki, which translates to 10,000 steps.

Image caption: Counting your steps daily with fitness trackers has become a popular hobby Dr. Ding says that these figures have been taken out of context and have become unofficial guidelines, and many fitness apps are still promoting these recommendations.

The Lancet study reviewed previous research and data on health and physical activity, including 160,000 adults from around the world.

Comparing people who walked 2,000 steps a day with those who walked 7,000 steps, it was found that taking 7,000 steps reduced the risk of many diseases. For example, every

Heart disease: 25 percent decrease

Cancer: 6 percent decrease

Dementia: 38 percent decrease

Depression: 22 percent decrease

However, experts say some figures may be less accurate than others because they are taken from very small studies.

Overall, their analysis shows that even a modest number of steps, around 4,000 a day, is associated with better health, while taking 2,000 steps is a very low level of physical activity.

Most exercise guidelines focus on either how many steps someone takes or how long they do physical activity.

For example, the World Health Organization says adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity each week.

Dr. Ding says this advice is hard for some people to understand, but the current guidelines still serve a very important purpose.

She explains that there are people who swim, cycle or have a physical disability who can't take steps, meaning they can't walk.

But she suggests that people should also add steps as an extra, which helps people think about how they can do their physical activity throughout the day.

Dr. Danielle Belle, a health expert at Brunel University London, is a health expert. He says the latest research challenges the ‘assumption’ that 10,000 steps a day is essential.

Although 10,000 steps is better for those who are very active,

He says that taking 5,000 to 7,000 steps a day may be an easier target for others.

Dr Andrew Scott is a senior lecturer in clinical exercise physiology at the University of Portsmouth. He agrees that the final numbers are not important.

He says that walking more steps is always better but advises that people should not worry too much about not meeting the target, especially on days when their mobility is limited.