7,000 Steps Daily Can Cut Disease Risk: Study

Walking just 7,000 steps each day can lower the risk of many serious diseases like cancer, diabetes, depression, dementia, and even death, a new study published in The Lancet Public Health on Thursday found.

The large review included data from over 160,000 adults across 57 studies. It showed that walking around 7,000 steps daily helped reduce the risk of:

• Heart disease by 25%

• Cancer by 6%

• Type 2 diabetes by 14%

• Dementia by 38%

• Depression by 22%

• Falls by 28%

The overall risk of death was reduced by nearly 50%.

Currently, many aim for an unofficial goal of 10,000 steps daily. However, the study suggests that 7,000 steps may be a more realistic target, especially for people who are less active.

Professor Ding Ding from The University of Sydney, Australia, who led the research, said that while 10,000 steps is still good for active people, 7,000 steps can still bring major health benefits and may be easier for many to achieve.

The study also found that walking even 4,000 steps per day is better than very low activity levels like only 2,000 steps daily.

For some health problems, such as heart disease, benefits kept increasing beyond 7,000 steps. But for most conditions, benefits started to level off after reaching 7,000 steps per day.

Researchers noted some limitations in their review. There were few studies on certain diseases like cancer and dementia, and not enough age-specific data. Some individual studies may also have biases.

Still, the findings highlight the value of daily step counts as a simple way to measure physical activity. The researchers suggest that this evidence could shape future public health guidelines, encouraging people to track their steps daily as an easy and effective way to improve overall health.