You carry your own body weight when you walk. This is known as weight-bearing exercise.
Previous research has found that walking could increase heart and lung fitness, boost bone health, improve mental health, and increase muscle strength and endurance.
In a study from Vanderbilt University, scientists found taking that often-cited 10,000 steps a day—or even slightly fewer—may indeed be enough to improve your health.
They found that among 6,000 middle-aged and older adults, those who got at least 8,000 to 9,000 steps daily had reduced risks of developing an array of conditions over seven years.
The list included obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep apnea, acid reflux and clinical depression. That step count is equivalent to walking roughly four miles, depending on the pace.
The study also found that when it came to warding off obesity and certain other health conditions, the more steps the better.
In the study, the team examined over 6,000 adults aged 41 to 67 who used Fitbit devices to track their daily steps.
The researchers were allowed access to their electronic health records, to see how their daily step counts correlated with their risk of being diagnosed with various chronic ills.
The median number of daily steps for the group was around 7,700 (roughly 3.5 miles)—which means half took more, and half took fewer.
The team found that over seven years, the study found, people who averaged at least 8,200 steps a day were less likely to develop obesity.
They also had lower risks of two conditions often related to obesity: sleep apnea, a night-time breathing disorder; and acid reflux disease. The odds of being diagnosed with major depression also went down.
The team also found people in the top 25% for step count—who typically got close to 11,000 steps per day—were about 30% to 50% less likely to develop those conditions, versus people in the bottom 25%, whose step count hovered around 6,000.
The researchers pointed to a more specific example: If an overweight person increased his or her daily step count from 6,000 to 11,000, that could cut the odds of becoming obese by 64%.
When it came to diabetes and high blood pressure, the study found a “plateau” effect—where the risks of those conditions were reduced when people got between 8,000 and 9,000 steps a day. But moving more did not offer additional protection.
If you care about wellness, please read studies about exercise that could reduce belly fat in senior men, and exercise hormone halts Parkinson’s disease symptoms.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about the best time to take vitamins to prevent heart disease, and these antioxidants could help reduce dementia risk.
The study was published in Nature Medicine.
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