At present, walking 10,000 steps per day has become a common fitness goal, but a new study shows 4,000 steps may be enough to stay fit and healthy.

The research, released in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, found that walking 2,337 steps a day cut the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease in half and that walking at least 3,967 steps a day started to lower the risk of dying from any cause, reports NDTV.

Researchers at the Medical University of Lodz in Poland and the Ciccarone Centre for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, led by Maciej Banach, found that the health advantages increased even if people took as many as 20,000 steps each day. They haven't yet discovered an upper bound.      

“We found that this applied to both men and women, irrespective of age, and irrespective of whether you live in a temperate, sub-tropical or sub-polar region of the world, or a region with a mixture of climates.        

In addition, our analysis indicates that as little as 4,000 steps a day are needed to significantly reduce deaths from any cause, and even fewer to reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease.” 

Strong data suggests that living a sedentary lifestyle may raise the risk of cardiovascular disease and shorten lifespan. According to studies, more than a quarter of the world's population suffers from inadequate physical exercise.

There are more women than males, and individuals in wealthy nations do less physical exercise than those in developing nations. With 3.2 million deaths annually attributed to physical inactivity, the World Health Organisation lists inadequate physical activity as the fourth most common cause of mortality worldwide.

According to data, physical activity levels declined as a result of the Covid-19 epidemic and have not recovered two years later.

Bd-pratidin English/Golam Rosul