Walking 7,000 steps a day reduces the risk of chronic diseases

A study published in the scientific journal The Lancet indicates that walking seven thousand steps a day can reduce the risk of chronic diseases, loss of mental capacity, and death.

The work of researchers, many from educational and research institutions in Australia, is based on data from more than 160,000 adults and has led to the discovery that even a goal of 4,000 daily steps, compared to a low average of 2,000, can bring significant health benefits.

The ideal is to complete 7,000 steps per day, a more realistic goal than the 10,000 currently recommended.

According to the study, increasing from 2,000 to 7,000 steps, the equivalent of approximately five kilometers, reduces the risk of premature death from all causes by almost half (47%), as well as the risk of cardiovascular disease (25%), cancer (6%), type 2 diabetes (14%), dementia (38%), depression (22%) and falls (28%).

"You don't need to take 10,000 steps a day to see major health benefits," said Paddy Dempsey, study co-author and medical researcher at the University of Cambridge. "The biggest gains occur at 7,000 steps, after which they tend to plateau," he added.

For Dempsey, those who can already take 10,000 steps or more daily should continue doing so, and those who have difficulty taking 7,000, which represents about an hour of walking, "shouldn't get discouraged."