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The number of daily steps you need – and it isn’t what you think

Benefits of walking kick in earlier than the recommended 10,000 steps, according to new analysis of 17 studies from around the world

根据对世界各地17项研究的最新分析，步行的好处并非起始于推荐的10000步

Sarah Knapton,

August 2023 • 8:00am

Each increase of 1,000 steps reduces the risk of early death by 15 per cent

If hitting 10,000 steps a day feels unachievable, then do not despair.

Scientists have found that the health benefits of walking kick in far earlier, with anything above 3,967 steps being enough to reduce the risk of an early death from any cause.

Even hitting 2,337 daily steps will start to lower the risk of dying from disease of the heart and blood vessels, researchers found, in the largest study of step count to date.

Adding more steps after that brings additional benefits, with each increase of 1,000 steps reducing the risk of early death by 15 per cent.

每增加1000步，过早死亡的风险就会降低15%

如果每天走10000步感觉无法实现，那么不要绝望。

科学家们发现，步行对健康的益处要早得多，只要超过3967步，就足以降低任何原因导致的过早死亡的风险。

研究人员在迄今为止最大的步数研究中发现，即使每天走2337步，也会开始降低死于心脏和血管疾病的风险。

之后增加更多的步骤会带来额外的好处，每增加1000步，早逝的风险就会降低15%。

For an average person with a stride length of around 2.1-2.5ft, that would mean heart benefits could kick in at around one mile of walking, and all cause benefits at around two miles.

“Our analysis indicates that as little as 4,000 steps a day are needed to significantly reduce deaths from any cause, and even fewer to reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease,” said Dr Maciej Banach, professor of cardiology at the Medical University of Lodz, Poland, and Johns Hopkins University.

“In a world where we have more and more advanced drugs to target specific conditions such as cardiovascular disease, I believe we should always emphasise that lifestyle changes, including diet and exercise, might be at least as, or even more effective in reducing cardiovascular risk and prolonging lives.”

对于一个步幅约为2.1-2.5英尺的普通人来说，这意味着步行一英里左右对心脏有益，步行两英里左右对所有人都有益。

波兰罗兹医科大学和约翰斯·霍普金斯大学的心脏病学教授Maciej Banach博士说：“我们的分析表明，每天只需要4000步就能显著减少任何原因造成的死亡，减少心血管疾病造成的死亡则更少。”。

“在一个我们有越来越多的先进药物来治疗心血管疾病等特定疾病的世界里，我认为我们应该始终强调，改变生活方式，包括饮食和锻炼，可能至少在降低心血管风险和延长生命方面同样有效，甚至更有效。”

Many health organisations recommend hitting 10,000 steps a day, although there is little evidence for the target, which is believed to have arisen from a Japanese marketing campaign in the 1960s.

In the run-up to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the company Yamasa sought to capitalise on the sudden interest in fitness, so designed the world’s first wearable step-counter. They called it the Manpo-kei, or “10,000-step meter”.

The company appears to have chosen the figure at random, as a fun goal, but it has stuck ever since.

Some research has found that health effects can plateau after 4,500 steps, while others suggest between 6,000 and 8,000 is the sweet spot for fighting chronic illness like heart problems and cancer.

According to World Health Organisation data, insufficient physical activity is the fourth most frequent cause of death in the world, with 3.2 million deaths a year related to physical inactivity.

The new analysis looked at more than 225,000 people from 17 different studies around the world, with an average age of 64, who were followed for around seven years.

In people aged 60 years or older, the size of the reduction in risk of death was smaller than that seen in people aged younger than 60 years.

Each 500 steps increase was found to bring a 7 per cent reduction in dying from cardiovascular disease.

In the older adults, there was a 42 per cent reduction in risk seen in those who walked between 6,000 and 10,000 steps a day, while there was a 49 per cent reduction in risk in younger adults who walked between 7,000 and 13,000 steps a day.

许多卫生组织建议每天走10000步，尽管几乎没有证据表明这一目标，据信这是20世纪60年代日本的一次营销活动产生的。1964年东京奥运会前夕，山佐公司试图利用人们对健身的突然兴趣，因此设计了世界上第一款可穿戴式计步器。他们称之为万步计，即“万步计”。

该公司似乎是随意选择了这个数字，作为一个有趣的目标，但从那以后就一直沿用至今。

一些研究发现，在走完4500步之后，对健康的影响会趋于稳定，而其他研究则表明，6000到8000步之间是对抗心脏病和癌症等慢性疾病的最佳点。

根据世界卫生组织的数据，身体活动不足是世界上第四大死亡原因，每年有320万人因缺乏身体活动而死亡。

新的分析研究了来自世界各地17个不同研究的超过22.5万人，平均年龄为64岁，被跟踪了大约7年。

在60岁或60岁以上的人群中，死亡风险降低的幅度小于60岁以下人群。

研究发现，每增加500步，死于心血管疾病的几率就会降低7%。

在老年人中，每天步行6000到10000步的人患病风险降低了42%，而每天步行7000到13000步的年轻人患病风险降低了49%。

Maximum daily step count

The team found that the health benefits kept growing with additional steps, with no upper limit evident, although the maximum daily step count they recorded was 20,000.

Dr Ibadete Bytyçi from the University Clinical Centre of Kosovo, senior author of the paper, says: “Until now, it’s not been clear what is the optimal number of steps, both in terms of the cut-off points over which we can start to see health benefits, and the upper limit, if any, and the role this plays in people’s health.

“However, I should emphasise that there was limited data available on step counts up to 20,000 a day, and so these results need to be confirmed in larger groups of people.”

Prof Banach added: “Our study confirms that the more you walk, the better.

“We found that this applied to both men and women, irrespective of age, and irrespective of whether you live in a temperate, sub-tropical or sub-polar region of the world, or a region with a mixture of climates.”

The study is published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

每日最大步数

研究小组发现，尽管他们记录的最大每日步数为2万步，但随着步数的增加，健康益处不断增加，没有明显的上限。

来自科索沃大学临床中心的Ibadete Byty博士，这篇论文的高级作者，他说：“到目前为止，我们还不清楚什么是最佳的步数，无论是从我们可以开始看到健康益处的分界点，还是上限（如果有的话），以及它在人们健康中所起的作用。

“然而，我应该强调的是，对于每天2万步的步数，可用的数据有限，所以这些结果需要在更大的人群中得到证实。”

巴拿赫教授补充说：“我们的研究证实，你走得越多，效果越好。

“我们发现，这适用于男性和女性，与年龄无关，也与你是否生活在世界上的温带、亚热带或副极地地区，或者混合气候的地区无关。”

这项研究发表在欧洲预防心脏病学杂志上。

每增加1000步，过早死亡的风险就会降低15%

如果每天走10000步感觉无法实现，那么不要绝望。

科学家们发现，步行对健康的益处要早得多，只要超过3967步，就足以降低任何原因导致的过早死亡的风险。

研究人员在迄今为止最大的步数研究中发现，即使每天走2337步，也会开始降低死于心脏和血管疾病的风险。

之后增加更多的步骤会带来额外的好处，每增加1000步，早逝的风险就会降低15%。

The findings, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, showed that anything beyond 2,200 steps a day was enough to make some difference to heart health and mortality.

Those managing 4,000 steps a day cut their risk of early death by 20 per cent.

The best results were among those achieving between 9,000 and 10,000 steps daily, who cut their risk of premature death by 39 per cent. This group also reduced their risk of heart attacks and strokes by 21 per cent, the research found. Gains were achieved regardless of how much remaining time was sedentary.

The seven-year study found that any steps over the reference level of 2,200 daily was associated with lower mortality and lower risk of cardiovascular events, such as heart attacks, regardless of how active the rest of the day was.

The median daily step count for participants was 6,222 steps a day, with 10.6 hours spent sedentary.

Over an average 6.9 years’ follow-up, 1,633 deaths and 6190 cardiovascular events such as heart attacks occurred.

Matt Lambert, health information and promotion manager at the World Cancer Research Fund, said the study showed the “more active we are, the more we can reduce the risk of common diseases such as cancer and heart disease”.

He added: “What is particularly reassuring in this study, is that for those people with busy lives who find the 10,000 steps figure unobtainable, a significant health benefit was seen in those doing between 4,000 and 5,000 steps a day.”

A second study, published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, found even low levels of exercise can help cut the risk of stroke.

‘Stay active for heart health’

Julie Ward, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “We know that daily physical activity is essential to help maintain a healthy lifestyle and reduce your risk of developing heart conditions and your risk of stroke.

“These hopeful new studies show us that every single step towards making it to 10,000 steps a day counts to reducing risk of death and heart disease. Even low levels of activity can reduce the risk of stroke.

“We encourage everyone to stay active for their heart and circulatory health by doing 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week.

“This can be any activity that fits into your lifestyle, such as taking regular walking breaks away from your computer screen, going to the gym, enjoying exercise classes, or even getting off the bus one stop earlier to get more steps in.”

（中文稿由相关软件翻译，未完全经过人工校核。）