Lower the risk of heart disease by walking 6000 steps a day
There’s great news to end the year — new research suggests that older adults who participate in walking 6000 steps a day reduced their risk of heart disease. Walking has always provided a ton of health benefits, including slowing aging, and improving brain functions,, but this new discovery is surely a welcomed one.
The popular daily step goal has always been set at around 10,000 steps, and it’s alleviating to see that number drop down by 40 percent. Researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that older adults who went walking 6000 steps a day, up to 9000 a day, had a 40 to 50 percent lower risk of having a stroke or a heart attack, in comparison to those who only walked about 2000 steps a day.
The number of daily steps and cardiovascular risk in younger people were not linked, according to the study’s authors. This is mainly because cardiovascular disease usually develops as people age and rarely strikes in their youth.
The researchers used a meta-analysis of eight studies with more than 20,000 participants to arrive at their conclusions. According to a statement from Amanda Paluch, an assistant professor of kinesiology in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, “We found for adults over 60, there was a strikingly lower risk of a cardiovascular event or disease over an average follow-up of six years. When accumulating more steps per day, there was a progressively lower risk.”
Paluch and her group highly encourage older adults to hit the goal of walking 6000 steps a day if they aren’t at that number already. “The people who are the least active have the most to gain,” Paluch continued. “For those who are at 2,000 or 3,000 steps a day, doing a little bit more can mean a lot for their heart health. If you’re at 6,000 steps, getting to 7,000 and then to 8,000 also is beneficial. It’s just a smaller, incremental improvement.”