A recent study revealed that prolonged walks may significantly lower the risk of cardiac diseases linked to elevated blood pressure.
According to research published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, compared to a minimum step count of 2,300 steps, every 1,000 additional steps is linked to a 17% reduced risk of cardiac arrest, stroke, and cardiac failure.
For the study, researchers assessed data from over 32,000 participants with increased blood pressure in the UK Biobank.
These participants wore a wrist device for seven days to measure their walking distance and length.
Results indicated that for each additional 1,000 steps every day:
Participants were found to have 17% reduced risk of any cardiac disease, 9% decreased risk of cardiac failure, 22% reduced risk of cardiac failure, and 24% reduced risk of stroke.
Senior researcher and director of the Mackenzie Wearables Research Hub at the University of Sydney in Australia, Emmanuel Stamatakis, stated:
“This study is one of the first to demonstrate a dose-response relationship between daily step count and major problems of the heart and blood vessels.”
Scientists further discovered that participants tended to walk with an average intensity of 80 steps every minute during the half-hour they walked the fastest each day.
People who jogged or walked faster than their usual speed had reduced heart health risk, with no evidence that the increased pace caused any harm.
On the contrary, scientists found similar results when they assessed data of 37,000 non-hypertensive individuals. Among these people, every additional 1,000 steps made:
A 25% reduced risk of stroke, 20% reduced risk of any cardiac disease, and 18% reduced risk of heart attack
and 23% reduced risk of cardiac failure.
