Have you gone for your hot girl walk today? If the answer is no you might want to go and take your mum and your nan with you.
New research has found that walking an additional 500 steps per day was linked to lowering the risk of heart disease stroke or heart failure by 14%.
Older people who take fewer than 2,000 steps a day are three times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke compared with those who manage to get 4,500 steps a day.
The study which looked at people aged 70 or older found that walking an additional 500 steps per day, or an additional quarter mile of walking, was associated with a 14% lower risk of heart disease, stroke, or heart failure.
“Steps are an easy way to measure physical activity, and more daily steps were associated with a lower risk of having a cardiovascular disease-related event in older adults,” Erin Dooley, is an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health, America said.
“We were surprised to find that every additional quarter of a mile, or 500 steps, of walking had such a strong benefit to heart health.”
Dooley says she doesn’t want to diminish the importance of high intensity physical activity but walking also has significant cardiovascular benefits.
“If you are an older adult over the age of 70, start with trying to get 500 more steps per day,” she adds.
The study analysed health data for 452 people, with an average age of 78, who used an accelerometer device similar to a pedometer, worn at the hip, that measured their daily steps.
The devices were worn for three or more days, for 10 or more hours, and the average step count was about 3,500 steps per day.
Over the three-and-a-half-year follow-up period, 7.5% of those involved experienced a condition such as coronary heart disease, stroke or heart failure.
However, more research is needed to determine if meeting a higher daily count of steps prevents or delays cardiovascular disease, or if lower step counts may be an indicator of underlying disease.
“The findings in this study suggest that even a small increase in daily steps can make a big difference in cardiovascular disease in the elderly,” Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said.