A must-see for those who love dramas and don't exercise! Study: Just 4,000 more steps a day could help reduce cardiovascular risk by 14%
Sitting for long periods of time at work and watching TV shows after get off work have become the norm for modern people. Sitting all day long may affect your health and even lead to cardiovascular disease! However, a study published in the “British Journal of Sports Medicine” (BJSM) shows that even developing a simple “walking” habit can reduce the health risks of people who sit for more than 10.5 hours. Especially if you can increase your daily step count to more than 4,000 steps, you have the opportunity to reduce mortality and the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Walking more every day reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and death! Study: People who sit for long periods of time can also benefit
The research was initiated by a multi-national team from Australia, Chile, Spain, the United States and Denmark. The study first collected data from 72,174 subjects in the UK Biobank, with an average age of about 61 years. The research team used wearable devices to analyze the physical activity and sedentary time of the subjects within 7 days. Sedentary time was defined as the time the subjects sat or lay down while awake.
After preliminary analysis, the subjects were divided into the “long-term sedentary group” and the “short-term sedentary group”, which were defined as those who sat for more than 10.5 hours and those who sat for less than 10.5 hours respectively. The analysis results found that when the daily cumulative steps of the long-term sedentary group were classified as less than 4,000 steps and more than 8,000 steps, the absolute mortality risks were 5.41% and 3.05% respectively; in the short-term sedentary group, the absolute mortality risks were 3.74% and 2.27% respectively.
Measured by the subject’s all-cause mortality, if the long-term sedentary group can increase the number of daily steps by 9,000 steps, compared with those who only walk 2,200 steps, the risk of all-cause mortality can be reduced by 39%; the daily step number increases by 4,100 Step by step, you can reduce the risk by 20%. In the short-term sedentary group, an increase in daily step count of 10,300 steps reduced the risk of all-cause death by 31%; in the short-term sedentary group, an increase in daily step count of 4,400 steps reduced the risk by 16%.
If the subjects’ incidence of cardiovascular disease is compared, for the long-term and short-term sedentary groups, walking 4,300 steps a day can reduce cardiovascular risk by 10% and 14% respectively; walking 9,700 steps a day can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by 10% and 14%, respectively. Reduce risks by 21% and 29% respectively. Overall, walking 9,000-10,500 steps per day may be the best amount to offset long periods of sitting.
The “lowest cost” option for maintaining basic health? Experts: Walking 9,000 to 10,000 steps a day is optimal
Dr. Matthew N. Ahmadi, corresponding author of the study from the School of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney, Australia, said that by developing a daily walking habit, there are potential health benefits for sedentary people, especially for those who sit for long periods of time. Although this study has a sufficient sample size, more research is needed to confirm the relationship between walking and sitting.
“According to the study results, increasing the number of steps walked by 9,000-10,000 steps per day can minimize the risk of death and cardiovascular disease in sedentary people; Walk 4,000-4,500 more steps. " Dr. Ahmadi pointed out that for modern people who are busy with work and neglect to exercise, walking may be one of the simplest and cheapest ways to maintain basic physical health.
For patients with high blood pressure, the positive effects of developing a walking habit are comparable to taking blood pressure-lowering drugs
In addition to significantly reducing mortality and cardiovascular risk, regular daily walking can also help control blood pressure, resulting in potential benefits in the prevention of specific diseases. A study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) has proven that when subjects walked 2,700-3,000 steps a day, their systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure dropped by an average of 7mmHg and 4mmHg respectively. The study authors believe the benefits of walking may be similar to the effects of specific blood pressure-lowering medications.
The study further pointed out that the reduction in blood pressure of the subjects was equivalent to an 11% reduction in the risk of all-cause death, a 16% reduction in the risk of cardiovascular death, an 18% reduction in the risk of heart disease, and a 36% reduction in the risk of stroke. “Daily steps is a simple metric that is easy for older adults to interpret and understand, making it an ideal target for promoting physical activity to improve health.”
It has been found in previous research that exercise helps enhance the effects of blood pressure-lowering medications when combined with medications. This means that exercise can indeed be used as part of anti-hypertensive therapy, and working together with medications can help patients with hypertension control their blood pressure. For those who have difficulty exercising or do not have time to exercise, walking may be the beginning of developing an exercise habit.
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