Washington Post: 1,000 extra steps a day lower heart-attack risk

Walking just 1,000 extra steps a day could be linked to a lower risk of heart problems, especially for people with high blood pressure, according to a study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology and reported by The Washington Post.

The study followed 36,192 people with hypertension who wore activity-tracking devices.

Researchers monitored them for about 7.8 years, comparing their daily step counts with the occurrence of various cardiovascular problems.

The results showed that for every additional 1,000 steps a day above a baseline of around 2,344 steps, the average risk of major cardiovascular problems was about 17% lower.

Specifically, 1,000 extra steps a day were associated with:

• 22.4% lower risk of heart failure;
• 24.5% lower risk of stroke;
• 9.3% lower risk of heart attack.

One key finding is that the benefits do not appear to begin only once a person reaches the 10,000-steps-a-day goal.

Even people starting from a lower step count had a lower risk when they increased their activity.

The benefits began to taper off at around 10,000 steps a day.

According to the Washington Post, 1,000 steps is roughly half a mile, or about 8–10 minutes of walking, depending on the person’s pace.

However, the researchers emphasize that this is an observational study.

It shows a link between step counts and cardiovascular risk but does not prove that adding 1,000 steps directly causes the lower risk.

The study’s main message is that physical activity does not necessarily need to reach 10,000 steps a day to benefit heart health.