A few more steps each day to reduce the risk of death from cardiovascular disease

A few more steps each day to reduce the risk of death from cardiovascular disease

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Mr. and Mrs. Rossi are the classic couple who switch daily from the sofa to the car and vice versa. For them, thinking about reaching the classic 10,000 steps a day recommended by apps appears to be a real “mission impossible”.

But what matters, more than the goal, is to change habits, perhaps even without overdoing it and turning into marathon runners. According to a study presented to the Congress ofAmerican Heart Association held in Chicago, even simply adding 1,000 or even 500 steps to a day could lengthen life. Provided, of course, that every day you remember to take the classic walk, as long as possible. To have positive effects at any age.

The more you walk, the longer you live

That said there is no “magic” number that correlates steps and health, the study coordinated by Maciej Banach of the Polish University of Lodz starts from the analysis of 17 studies that offer information on the association between daily step counts, deaths from all causes and cardiovascular deaths.

In all, almost 227,000 adults were monitored for an average period of about seven years. What emerges from the meta-analysis? Simply increasing the amount of walking by 1000 steps per day results in a 22% lower chance of death, and increasing walking length by just 500 steps per day is associated with a 7% decrease in cardiovascular deaths. but we are only at the beginning of the verification of the relationship between daily steps and mortality: walking more better if much more, drastically changes the risk curves.

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What does walking through the heart and arteries involve?

Only considering deaths from cardiovascular causes, the experts coordinated by Banach considered the quota of 2350 steps as the starting point. If you get to 4000 steps, the drop in the risk of death from cardiovascular problems such as heart attacks and strokes (and not only) drops by 16% in the observation period and almost halves if the number of steps allows you to touch 7000 steps per day. day.

For those who exceed 10,000 steps, settling at around 10,400 steps a day, the probability of death from cardiovascular problems drops by as much as 67%. In short, the more you walk, the better. But we must not impose excessive efforts and propose unattainable goals to those with heart problems. According to Banach, even taking just 1,000 extra steps each day is important. The important thing is that there is the necessary constancy and that the fight against a sedentary lifestyle is daily.

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Benefits for the whole organism

Research has an important limitation: it is based only on the observation of what happened and does not allow for the precise measurement of the impact of a specific intervention. Therefore, the potential benefits of the extra steps each day need to be measured in well-designed randomized controlled trials in different populations. But the study once again highlights the importance of preventing cardiovascular risk through regular physical activity.

“The tendency of Italians to be inactive is evident: a third of us are sedentary and, evaluating only the less young, according to ISTAT and the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, just 36.4% of the 60-64 year olds and the 37.3% between 65-74 year olds – he explains Claudio Ferri, Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of L’Aquila. The study confirms what has recently emerged in a work published in Circulation conducted on 116,221 US adults followed for 30 years which demonstrated how regular physical activity reduces not only cardiovascular mortality, but also total mortality, i.e. due, for example, to tumours”.

What needs to be done?

The analyzes show that the benefit associated with fighting on the couch is not only evident among true sportsmen, but also for those who walk every day for an hour, don’t take the lift and try to avoid the car.

“Even, in a curious, but not unique work of Dos Santos and collaborators appeared just three months ago on JAMA Internal Medicine, even the Sunday sportsman – that is, that bizarre character that we find in the office or sprawled out on the sofa for 5-6 days a week and we see running or playing tennis on Saturday and/or Sunday – has seen a reduction of about 10% total mortality compared to the sedentary – says Ferri. The study evaluated 350,978 individuals, with a mean age of 41 years, followed prospectively for 10.4 years. In fact, those who do even moderate physical activity: they are more serene, feel better and live longer than sedentary people. Once the necessary preliminary checks have been made, therefore, it is necessary to move. And regularly.”

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