No need to walk 10,000 steps a day..
There's a simpler way to keep your heart healthy!
When it comes to maintaining overall health, experts advise walking
10,000 steps a day :
an exercise that can offer a number of benefits for physical and mental health.
But some researchers believe there is another method of exercise that
may be more effective when it comes to promoting heart health.
A new study
- indicates that climbing just five flights of stairs daily
- (one flight of stairs is equivalent to 10 steps) may reduce
- the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
The benefits seemed greater for people who had done 10 or more rounds
according to the results of a decade-long study involving 400,000 Britons.
Climbing :
the stairs provides a short period of high-intensity exercise
in the same way as jumping or aerobics.
Other examples of such activities - 75 minutes of which the NHS recommends
a week - are running, swimming and cycling fast.
Researchers from Tulane University monitored the health of 458,860 people in
the United Kingdom for an average of 12 and a half years.
Participants were asked how many times they climbed stairs
at the beginning of the study, and again five years later.
Over the course of the study, 39,043 people developed atherosclerosis
when arteries become narrow, making it difficult for blood to flow through them.
The results :
published in the journal Atherosclerosis, showed that participants who climbed
between 5 flights of stairs daily were 3% less likely to develop atherosclerosis
compared to those who did not climb stairs.
Meanwhile
- volunteers who climbed
- at least six groups per day were
- 16% less at risk.
The researchers concluded that climbing more than five flights of stairs
(about 50 steps) is associated with a lower risk of developing the disease
which can lead to heart attacks and strokes.
Dr Lu Qi
author of the study, said: "Short periods of high-intensity stair climbing
are a time-efficient way to improve cardiorespiratory fitness...
Especially
- among those unable to
- achieve current physical activity
- recommendations," he said.
He noted that the findings "highlight the potential advantages of
stair climbing" as a preventative measure for atherosclerosis.
However
the study was observational and did not mean that climbing stairs reduced
participants' risk of cardiovascular disease.
But the findings
add to a large body of evidence suggesting that even simple
exercise can help improve health.
In addition to promoting heart health, experts say that climbing stairs
burns twice as many calories as walking and strengthens the lungs and muscles.
The pace of walking
may predict whether you will die early or not!
Experts recommend walking 10,000 steps a day to maintain overall health
but a recent study suggests that the pace of walking
may be more important than the number of steps.
The study says that those who practice brisk walking, where the walking speed
exceeds 6 km per hour, are less likely to die from cancer or have a heart attack.
While walking slowly may mean that you are more at risk of premature death.
Researchers from the University of Leicester found that people
are more likely to die from heart attacks
cancer :
or other causes within 10 years if they walk at a slower pace.
Dr Jonathan Goldney
from the University of Leicester
said:
"We encourage walkers to increase their pace where possible
as this may only improve their life expectancy.
There are also many other benefits of physical activity, as previous research
has shown.
Doctors should also consider asking their patients how fast they walk
as it turns out this can tell them a lot about their risk of death
which may guide the use of strategies to prevent premature death and disease
he said.
Previous research has shown that the more you walk, the lower your risk of death
even if you walk fewer than 5,000 steps a day.
Researchers from the University of Leicester monitored 391,652 people
aged between 38 and 73, listed on the UK Biobank.
Participants reported their walking pace as "slow" (less than 4 km per hour)
"steady/medium" (4-6 km per hour) or "fast" (above 6 km per hour).
Only 6.6% said they walked slowly, while 52.6% reported moderate walking
and 40.8% reported walking at a fast pace.
Participants were followed for an average of 13 years
and 22,000 deaths were recorded during this period.
The results showed that
women who had a fast walking pace were 26% less likely to die from cancer
and men faced a 29% lower risk, compared to those who walked slowly.
Fast-paced women faced a 60% reduction in the risk of
death from cardiovascular disease. For men, the figure was 62%.
The researchers found that the probability of premature death in both sexes from
other causes, such as dementia and respiratory diseases, decreases by 71% when
walking quickly, according to the data.