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Although 10,000 steps a day is a popular goal for many people looking to stay healthy, new research finds that adults can maintain a healthy heart with half that amount.
Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst whose research was published in the journal Circulation say it only takes 6,000 steps to cut the risk of heart disease in half.
Amanda Falloch, assistant professor of kinesiology, and her team found that adults over 60 who walked between 6,000 and 9,000 steps each day lowered their risk of having a stroke or heart attack by 40 to 50 percent.
This, compared to older adults who only take 2,000 steps a day.
By the way, researchers from the Mayo Clinic in the US estimate that the average person walks about 3,000 steps every day.
"We found that adults over the age of 60 had a remarkably low risk of a cardiovascular event or disease during an average follow-up of six years," Paloch said. "As they accumulated more steps per day, the risk was progressively lower."
Whether you're just walking your average number of steps or aiming for more, the results show that 10,000 steps a day isn't necessary to improve your health.
Researchers reviewed 15 studies involving about 50,000 people on four different continents during this project.
All of these participants took between 6,000 and 8,000 steps each day, revealing that 6,000 steps is the threshold for lowering the risk of death from all causes.
Less, much less.
A walking woman (Photo: ShutterStock)
In a second review, the team examined the relationship between steps and cardiovascular disease.
The results were similar to the beneficial association between steps and premature death.
Although walking more than 6,000 steps led to even better health for older adults, Falloch says setting the bar at 6,000 could encourage less active seniors to take more steps each day.
"The people who are the least active have the most to gain," says the researcher, "for those who are at 2,000 or 3,000 steps a day, walking a little more steps can mean a lot to their heart health. If you are at 6,000 steps, reaching -7,000 and then to 8,000 is also helpful, but it is only a smaller, cumulative improvement."
Speed is not important
A second review looked at eight studies involving more than 20,000 people in 43 countries.
The study authors found no association between steps and heart disease risk among young adults.
"The reason for this is that cardiovascular disease is that these diseases often don't become apparent until we're older," says Faluch, "You won't see many people develop cardiovascular disease after six years of follow-up in young to middle adulthood."
The team notes that future studies involving young adults should focus on the early warning signs of heart disease, such as high blood pressure, obesity and type 2 diabetes. "These conditions develop in younger adults and are important for early prevention," Paloch said.
Importantly, the new study found no link between walking intensity and better heart health.
Simply put, walking faster or slower won't affect the benefit of simply taking more steps each day.
"We interpret these results with caution, but we didn't find any significant relationship with walking intensity," Faluch concluded, "There was no additional benefit with how fast you walk, beyond the total number of steps you gained."
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