HOW MANY STEPS A DAY ? HERE ARE YOUR ANSWERS!
Every time, anyone tries to promote physical activity, they use the same mantra, “take ten thousand steps a day” This started as a marketing slogan in 1965 from a Japanese company that sold a new step-counter with the idea that ten thousand steps a day were the route to good health. Now let me state a simple but realistic truth: when it comes to physical activity, anything is better than nothing.
While many research studies prove that doing ten thousand steps a day can indeed be a good idea, in reality once you go beyond five thousand you can make a difference. Most healthy people take somewhere between 5,000 and 7,500 steps in their daily routine, so, If you only add 30 minutes of walking to your day, you will be very close to those 10,000 steps.
A study in The Journal of the American Medical Association followed 2,110 adults, and found unsurprisingly that the more steps the lower rates of all-cause mortality. It is interesting to note that those that did 7,000 to 10,000 steps a day did as well as those who did more, suggesting that you get to an inflection point where you had your benefit. There is nothing wrong with doing more, but you can reach your health goals between 7 to 10 thousand steps.
The high cost of a sedentary lifestyle just became a bit more evident ― a new global study shows that inactivity drives up to 8% of noncommunicable diseases and mortality. Physical inactivity, is defined as engaging in less than 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity per week.
Physical inactivity is associated with a significant public health burden and the evidence now shows associations with 10 or more chronic diseases. Of course the most notorious of them being obesity, diabetes, heart and vascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and cancer; all together responsible of about 70% of deaths in America.
In a randomized study, diabetes patients received either the usual care or went to an exercise prescription that counted from around 5,000 to 6,200 steps per day. They found improved blood sugar control in those engaged in the exercise program. Many studies support overall improvement in insulin effectiveness, better sugar control, lipid profile enhancement and many other metabolic benefits with as little as 6 to 9 thousand steps a day. Keep in mind that a UK group also reported that household activity seriously done and programed such as vacuum cleaning, keeping our garden and in general engaging in an active physical effort counts too.
A recent study found that Americans report more than 5 hours a day of free time, but spend 24 minutes or less in physical activity. If you begin to count steps, which I would strongly advise, you will become more conscious of what I am saying and hopefully you will start adding steps and physical activities to your day. I frequently advise my patients to go to big stores, well lit, well kept, flat, safe, where you can grab a shopping cart and walk around for 30 minutes every day, they you do your shopping. The benefits will be fantastic and you will be much better than going to a gym, and no-one notices you are using a walker: your cart. Isn’t this remarkably easy, simple, inexpensive and successful, just go for it and let me know.
As a good friend of mine and also brilliant physician reminds everyone who will listen: move!