DENVER — There is a new study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that suggests 4,000 steps a day at least three times a week could be enough to lower your risk of death by up to 40%.
This is very different from the 10,000 steps we've all heard about. So Denver7 asked Dr. Scott Joy, the chief medical officer at HCA HealthOne, how it can drop so dramatically.
"When you look at the history behind that, it actually was a marketing ploy," Dr. Joy said. "That it was actually a marketing number that someone threw out who had a pedometer, rather than based on any science. So as we've gone back and studied this, we're putting little more solid numbers to the step counts."
Researchers came up with different numbers.
The British Journal of Sports Medicine study, which primarily focused on older women, reports women who walk at least 4,000 steps one or twice a week cut the risk of death by 26%. It also decreases their risk of heart disease over the course of a decade by 27%. That was no matter the intensity, method or speed of walking.
And if women walked at least 4,000 steps three or more times a week, it reduced their risk of death by up to 40% and their heart disease risk by 27%.
Dr. Joy said another study just released this week found if you can get a 15-minute walk, you see benefits, but really any movement is better than no movement at the end of the day.
He said you see a lot more health benefits when you walk up to 8,000 steps.
"I think the important thing that we're doing now in primary care is encouraging this concept of movement," Dr. Joy said. "The other part of this that I think a lot of people under appreciate is the value of strength training added to the walking so people who do light weight bearing exercise, two three times per week actually have better outcomes as well."
Doctors hope this will feel more attainable and encourage people to move more.
It's important to note, while these studies focused on older adults, it's not clear how it applies to other demographics.
Of course diet and other health conditions play a role too.
