If you’re struggling to reach 10,000 steps a day, here’s some good news: The latest science suggests fewer daily steps may be the sweet spot for many of us, depending on our age, fitness and health goals.
Health
Forget 10,000 steps. 7 surprising tips for step counters.
More recently, scientists have come up with evidence-based recommendations about step-count goals. I recently spoke with some of the world’s leading experts on the science of step counting. Here’s their advice.
1. Your step count goal may be lower than you think
In the past few years, multiple large-scale studies have stepped up, looking closely into how many steps we probably need for our health and longevity. In the largest, published last year in the Lancet Public Health, dozens of global researchers pooled data from 15 earlier step-count studies, some unpublished, covering 47,471 adults of all ages, and compared their typical daily step counts to their longevity.
For people older than age 60, the threshold was a little lower. For them, the sweet spot in terms of reduced mortality risk came at between 6,000 and 8,000 steps a day.
Walking more than 10,000 steps a day wasn’t bad for people – it didn’t increase the risk of dying – but also didn’t add much, in terms of reducing mortality risks.
The benefits also weren’t confined to longevity. In other studies, step counts of at least 8,000 a day for adults substantially lowered risks for heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, dementia, depression, many types of cancer and even sleep apnea, said Janet Fulton, senior science adviser in the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Not managing 8,000 steps a day at the moment? Or 6,000? Or even 5,000? You’re not alone. Even before the pandemic, most Americans were averaging fewer than 6,000 steps a day. And COVID-19 seems to have reduced many people’s daily step counts by 10 per cent or more, according to some recent research, with daily activity levels only slowly returning to pre-pandemic levels.
How do you begin to increase your step counts? Even very small increases in daily steps are good for you.
“I suggest starting with an increase of about 500 to 1,000 steps per day,” said Ulf Ekelund, a professor at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences who studies physical activity and was one of the co-authors of the Lancet step-count study.
“We currently consider 500 steps a day as the minimum target for increased activity in inactive individuals,” said Thomas Yates, a professor of physical activity, sedentary behavior and health at the University of Leicester in England.
Every week or two, try accumulating another 500 or 1,000 steps, Ekelund said, until you reach at least 8,000 a day, or 6,000 if you’re past age 60.
3. You don’t need an expensive step counter
“Phones or watches are reasonably accurate,” said I-Min Lee, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who studies physical activity.
But not everyone owns a watch or similar activity tracker, Fulton said, while “almost everyone has a smartphone now.” And almost every smartphone, Apple or Android, contains an accelerometer, which is a movement tracker, that can tell you how many steps you take, Fulton said.
But these issues are relatively trivial, Yates said. Most phones and other types of trackers “are reasonably reliable,” he said, and if they over- or underestimate your steps somewhat, they’ll do so “consistently,” so you can track your progress.
A more intractable problem may be that many of us don’t carry our phones all the time, said Charles Matthews, a physical activity epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute and another co-author of the Lancet study. If your phone sits on your desk, it won’t count your steps. So, for an accurate measure of total daily steps, bring your phone as you amble. Carry it in your pocket, purse, or hand. The accelerometer should pick up your movements regardless, he said.
Here’s some basic step-count math: 1,000 steps is about half a mile. Want to go that extra mile? For most of us, 2,000 steps is about a mile, depending on stride length. Taking 10,000 steps would mean walking for about five miles.
5. Speed doesn’t matter
In terms of time, a half-hour of walking equals around 3,000 steps for most of us, if we don’t hurry.
The good news is we probably don’t need to hurry. In almost all of the recent studies of step counts and mortality, the intensity of the steps, meaning how fast people walked, didn’t seem to matter much. It’s the overall number of steps they took throughout the day that made a difference.
Intensity is the “icing” on the cake, Matthews said. Walking faster has the potential to amplify the health benefits of walking, but only slightly, he said.
6. Step goals aren’t about weight loss
Walking is not a calorie zapper. In broad terms, accumulating 2,000 steps, which is walking for about a mile, burns about 100 calories for an average adult moving at a strolling pace.
Your typical doughnut contains about 300 calories. An apple has about 100. Even 10,000 steps a day adds up to only about 500 calories.
7. It’s easier to count steps than minutes of exercise
Why count steps at all? Because, for most of us, it’s a simpler, more-concrete goal than accumulating “at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity” every week, which happens to be the formal advice in the U.S. government’s 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines.
“They do not understand them and cannot absorb them. I have gone to prescribing steps. I tell them they need to get to a minimum of 7,000 steps per day.”
Stepping goals weren’t included in the 2018 guidelines, since a scientific advisory board believed the evidence then was thin, but most experts expect step counts to be included in future recommendations.
Meanwhile, the advice for most of us is the same, however we measure our movements — and assuming we are physically capable of walking).
“Some is good, more is better,” Lee said, and the first step is to just get up and take a few steps.
For more health news and content around diseases, conditions, wellness, healthy living, drugs, treatments and more, head to Healthing.ca – a member of the Postmedia Network.
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The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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