Experts agree on the importance of walking and its great health benefits, but the recent period has witnessed information that may be inaccurate about the number of steps that we must accomplish daily to reap these benefits.
Research has found that walking just 8,000 steps three times a week can actually reduce the risk of dying from heart disease.
According to the British newspaper “The Sun”, Japanese scientists found that the modest amount of exercise was sufficient to significantly reduce risk levels.
Researchers followed the steps of 3,330 adults over the course of a week to see how this affected their long-term health.
They found that those who achieved the goal of 8,000 steps per day in three or more days were 16 percent less likely to die from heart disease.
“People may gain significant health benefits by walking just two days a week,” said Dr. Kosuke Inoue, of Kyoto University in Japan.
The researchers also found that those who took 8,000 steps or more for one or two days a week were 14.9 percent less likely to die over a 10-year period than those who never reached that limit.
They said the health benefits of walking 8,000 steps or more for one or two days a week appeared to be highest for participants age 65 and older.
A previous study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine showed that just 11 minutes a day of moderate-intensity physical activity, such as brisk walking, can reduce the risk of diseases such as heart disease and stroke.
