An international team of researchers has calculated the optimal daily number of steps for sedentary people.
Today, a sedentary lifestyle is becoming more and more common in the world. It is associated with higher risks of developing cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and other health problems. In a new study, researchers have found that the more steps a person takes every day, regardless of how sedentary they are, the lower their risk of developing cardiovascular disease and even premature death.
«It is in no way a means of escape from a limited existence for people who have been sedentary for a long time. However, it carries an important public health message that all movement counts and that people can and should try to offset the health effects of an inevitable sedentary lifestyle by increasing the number of daily steps», — explains a specialist in public health with University of Sydney Matthew Ahmadi.
Ahmadi and his colleagues analyzed data from 72,174 volunteers from the UK Biobank, which has been tracking the health of participants in a large-scale study for 30 years. For each participant, data was collected on their overall health for almost 7 years. The study participants wore accelerometers for a week to assess level of personal physical activity. The study included the number of steps they took each day and the time they spent sitting.
On average, the study participants sat for 10.6 hours a day. Those who sat for longer periods of time were considered to have a prolonged sedentary lifestyle. Researchers have found that 9,000 to 10,000 steps per day are optimal for compensating for prolonged sitting, reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease by 21%, and mortality — by 39%. Australian researchers have determined that regardless of how long a person has been sedentary, 50% of the benefits were seen when taking 4 to 4.5 thousand steps per day.
«Any number of steps per day exceeding the reference 2,200 was associated with lower mortality and cardiovascular disease risk, both in sedentary and long-term lifestyles Between 9,000 and 10,000 steps per day optimally reduced the risk of mortality and cardiovascular disease among participants with a sedentary lifestyle», — Matthew Ahmadi and colleagues note.
Training 1-2 times a week is equal to daily training in terms of health benefits, — study
The results of the study were published in British Journal of Sports Medicine
Source: ScienceAlert
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