The more you walk, the healthier you can become, major study finds

Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Walking always has been beneficial for health, but European and U.S. researchers have found that you don't have to walk a great distance daily to receive significant benefit.

A new study published Tuesday in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology says that a person can walk 3,967 steps a day to start to reduce the risk of dying from any cause and 2,337 steps a day to reduce the risk of dying from heart disease or blood vessel disease.

Researchers led by Maciej Banach, professor of cardiology at the Medical University of Lodz, Poland, and adjunct professor at the Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said essentially the more you walk, the healthier you will be.

"Our study confirms that the more you walk, the better," Banach said. "We found that this applied to both men and women, irrespective of age, and irrespective of whether you live in a temperate, sub-tropical or sub-polar region of the world, or a region with a mixture of climates.

"In addition, our analysis indicates that as little as 4,000 steps a day are needed to significantly reduce deaths from any cause, and even fewer to reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease."

Researchers looked at 226,889 people from 17 different studies around the world, which revealed the range of benefits they gained from walking. The more they walked, they more they benefited.

"The risk of dying from any cause or from cardiovascular disease decreases significantly with every 500 to 1,000 extra steps you walk," researchers said. "An increase of 1,000 steps a day was associated with a 15% reduction in the risk of dying from any cause, and an increase of 500 steps a day was associated with a 7% reduction in dying from cardiovascular disease."

The study said plenty of evidence exists that a sedentary lifestyle may contribute to an increase in cardiovascular disease and a shorter life. It noted that past studies revealed that insufficient physical activity affects more than a quarter of the world's population.

"More women than men (32% versus 23%), and people in higher-income countries compared to low-income countries (37% versus 16%) do not undertake a sufficient amount of physical activity.

"According to World Health Organization data, insufficient physical activity is the fourth most frequent cause of death in the world, with 3.2 million deaths a year related to physical inactivity. The COVID-19 pandemic also resulted in a reduction in physical activity, and activity levels have not recovered two years on from it."

Banach said that the benefits of walking is the same regardless of gender, age or residence.

"We found that this applied to both men and women, irrespective of age, and irrespective of whether you live in a temperate, sub-tropical or sub-polar region of the world, or a region with a mixture of climates," he said.

"In addition, our analysis indicates that as little as 4,000 steps a day are needed to significantly reduce deaths from any cause, and even fewer to reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease."

Banach said the study also suggested that despite the more advanced drugs being on the market to target such conditions like heart disease, physicians always should emphasize lifestyle changes to their patients to prolong life.

"We still need good studies to investigate whether these benefits may exist for intensive types of exertion, such as marathon running and iron man challenges, and in different populations of different ages, and with different associated health problems," Banach said.

"However, it seems that, as with pharmacological treatments, we should always think about personalizing lifestyle changes."