8,000 Steps to Better Health

The new study suggests that people taking just 8,000 steps one or two days a week are also less likely to die over a 10-year follow-up period.

. It was found that in over a decade of follow-up, people 20 years of age or older who took 8,000 or more steps on one or two days a week were 14.9% less likely to die compared to people who were

The risk of death dropped as the number of days involved increased. For example, exercising from three to seven days a week was associated with a 16.5% reduction in all-cause and cardiovascular deaths.

The same pattern held true for people meeting step goals of 6,000 to 10,000 steps.

A previous study has found that mortality risk decreases up to 10,000 steps per day for people younger than 60 and 8,000 for people older than 60 (2^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Daily steps and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis of 15 international cohorts

Go to source).

The study’s findings pertain to both ‘weekend warriors,’ people who confine their exercise to non-work days, and weekend walkers or people who steal a few hours to walk during the week.

There is evidence that the average American takes just 4,800 steps a day, which is too little to provide much of a health benefit (3^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Large-scale physical activity data reveal worldwide activity inequality

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What is ‘Brisk Walking’? It is defined as walking three miles per hour. The current study compared data from the U.S. 2005 and 2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey with the National Death Index up to the year 2019. It incorporated accelerometer data from 3,101 participants aged 20 years or older and was a nationally representative sample. It included a similar number of women and men, and 50.9% were white, 21.5% black, 23.7% hispanic, and 3.9% other race and ethnicity.

The participants most likely to walk 8,000 or more steps every day were more likely to be young, male, Hispanic, insured, and married. They were also typically never-smokers and were less likely to be obese or have comorbidities.

The Challenge of Walking 8,000 Steps

Most people find that walking 8,000 steps each day requires a significant commitment of time. Let’s do some math. If 8,000 steps are about four miles, then if someone is walking at three miles per hour, they need to walk for a total of about an hour and 20 minutes every day. Steps can be taken simultaneously or in shorter periods of brisk walking.

The study was led by Dr. Kosuke Inoue of Kyoto University in Japan, who collaborated with researchers from UCLA in California. Dr. Inoue explained why the study was undertaken:

“We started this study to answer the question one of my patients asked during an outpatient clinic: ‘It is hard for me to take sufficient steps every day. Is it okay to focus on walking only during the weekend?’.”

Steps studies often consider the value of a week’s worth of various step goals, and Dr. Inoue saw a lack of evidence regarding the possible benefits of walking just a few days a week.

“Given that a lack of time is one of the major barriers to exercise in modern society,” said Dr. Inoue, “our findings provide useful information to recommend walking even for a couple of days per week to reduce mortality risk.”

Why Walking is Good for your Health

Walking is seen as a simple, low-impact means of making a person’s life less sedentary. A sedentary lifestyle has been linked to an increased risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.
Moreover, a sedentary lifestyle drastically increases the risk of cardiometabolic diseases such as abdominal obesity, hypertension (high blood pressure), type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, and certain inflammatory conditions and cancers.

According to Harvard Medical School, taking one’s steps has additional, less-obvious benefits. Walking offsets the effect of weight-promoting genes reduces breast cancer risk, and boosts one’s immune system. It can also lessen arthritis-based joint pain, and even a 15-minute walk can curb a chocolate craving, both generally and in response to stress (4^✔ ✔Trusted Source
5 surprising benefits of walking

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How to Make Time for Walking When you Don’t Have Any

The findings of the study provide valuable information for clinicians and health professionals. The study suggests that even achieving recommended daily steps only a couple of days per week can have meaningful health benefits.

The study’s conclusions encourage people who don’t have enough time to walk 8,000 steps a day to overcome the feelings that walking less is pointless.

There is now scientific evidence that proves this mindset is not true, and even a couple of days is beneficial.

Any amount of, even one to two days per week, is still better than no walking.

References :

Association of Daily Step Patterns With Mortality in US Adults – (https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2802810)

Daily steps and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis of 15 international cohorts – (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(21)00302-9/fulltext)