Doctors meet sick people every day at their work and try to cure them. Good doctors, of course, want to be healthy themselves. How can we preserve and improve our health? In fact, there are quite simple answers. For example, there is irrefutable evidence that we can prevent many diseases by leading a healthy lifestyle. I want to share with you my actions and my thoughts, how I try to lead this healthy lifestyle. By doing this, I want to help people be healthy and make our world a little better. Nothing too expensive or fantastic - just what I do myself. I hope each of you can repeat it. Let’s try it!
Today I want to remind you about the simplest way of physical activity, which is available to almost everyone. I’m talking about walking. Most recently, on August 9, a meta-analysis of studies on the relationship between the daily number of steps and mortality was published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology (Meta-analysis is such an analysis combining the results of several scientific studies. Meta-analytical results are considered the most reliable source of evidence in the literature on evidence-based medicine). Link to the source below.
https://academic.oup.com/eurjpc/advance-article/doi/10.1093/eurjpc/zwad229/7226309
This meta-analysis included seventeen cohort studies with a total of 226 889 participants (generally healthy or patients at risk of cardiovascular disease) with an average follow-up period of 7,1 years. Quite a lot, isn’t it?
So, this meta-analysis demonstrated a significant inverse relationship between the daily number of steps and mortality from all causes and mortality from cardiovascular diseases, and the more, the better. That is, the more steps we take in a day, the lower the risk of our death. It’s as simple as walking. It’s also worth emphasizing that the number of daily steps is really important, and not necessarily the intensity of the exercises.
Remember that physical activity is associated with reducing the risk of mortality from any cause and improving the quality of life. Walking is remarkable because it doesn’t require special equipment or training, and you can walk almost anywhere. Do you live in Argentina or in the Southeastern United States, not in Belarus? You need to walk more too! The analysis didn’t show a statistically significant influence of climatic regions on mortality from all causes. Mortality from all causes decreased sharply in people in all climatic zones (temperate, subtropical, subpolar, and mixed zone) without significant differences between groups.
The results show that only 4 000 steps per day are required to significantly reduce mortality from all causes, and even fewer steps are required to significantly reduce mortality from cardiovascular diseases. But there is no need to stop there. An increment of 1000 steps correlates with a significant decrease in mortality from all causes by 15 %, and a similar increase of 500 steps correlated with a decrease in the risk of mortality from cardiovascular diseases by 7 %. Currently, the recommended number of steps for most people is by the USA Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is 10 000 steps a day, but if you can walk more, then don’t limit yourself. The upper limit of walking, after which health indicators no longer improve, doesn’t stop at 10 000 steps. A team of researchers assessed the impact of walking up to 20 000 steps a day, and found that the health benefits continue to grow. Data on distances greater than 20 000 steps are limited, and further research is needed.
You can buy a smartwatch (just wash it more often) for self-control, this can help increase the number of steps taken per day. Gamification and identification with the community leading a healthy lifestyle. But don’t turn it into fetish. The most important thing is our motivation, the desire to be healthy and live long. In fact, that’s what we all need, not a new beautiful smartwatch. As for me, I don’t have a smartwatch. I just don’t use transport and walk. I think you are also able to walk without a computer. Walking is what we really need! In order to walk more, you can, for example, start by getting out of public transport one stop earlier than necessary.
I have stopped using trolleybuses since October last year. Every working day I walk 5 km to work and walk the same amount back. On weekends I go to a park 3 km from my house (and I go there too). And I feel great and I don’t want to take public transport anymore. And you can do it too, try it!
You can find even more interesting things on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking