A new study finds that walking for 40 minutes (almost 4,000 steps) just twice a week can reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes in older women.
The study was conducted by researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, United States, and its results were published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine on October 21, and the British newspaper Daily Mail wrote about it.
The research team tracked the weekly step counts of more than 13,000 women, with an average age of 71 years.
The researchers studied data collected by fitness trackers over seven consecutive days between 2011 and 2015.
The study found that walking 4,000 steps a day at least once or twice a week was associated with a 26% lower risk of death compared to women who did not do so.
Anything is better than nothing
Walking an average of 4,000 steps one to two times per week was associated with a 27% lower risk of cardiovascular death than not reaching this threshold on any day of the week.
Walking 4,000 steps 3 times a week reduced the risk of death from any cause from 27% to 40%. But the risk of death from cardiovascular disease remained the same.
Increasing the number of daily steps to between 5,000 and 7,000 steps on 3 or more days per week was associated with an additional reduction in the risk of death from any cause, but did not have a significant effect on reducing deaths related to cardiovascular disease.
The term cardiovascular disease is used to refer to diseases that affect the heart or blood vessels, including coronary heart disease, heart failure, and stroke.
High blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, and irregular heartbeat may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.