Walking an Extra 1,000 Steps May Increase Your Life Span

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  • New research has found that taking more steps each day could help you live longer.
  • You don’t need to commit to lengthy strolls every day to improve your health.
  • More daily steps has been linked to a range of health benefits, like better heart health, improved sleep quality, and more positive mental health.

New research has found that taking more steps each day could help you live longer.

The findings, which were presented today at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology and Prevention | Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Conference, found that people who took more steps each day had a significantly lower risk of death than those who were less active.

The health benefits were consistent among people who walked in uninterrupted sessions and those who walked in short spurts.

Prior evidence has found walking to have a range of positive health effects, from cardiovascular improvements, better sleep quality, and improved mental health.

You don’t need to commit to lengthy strolls each day to improve your health. Squeezing in spurts of steps through everyday activities has the same health benefits.

“Walking is the easiest and cheapest form of moderate exercise. Aside from supportive shoes, it doesn’t require any specific equipment, and because you don’t need to push yourself hard enough to sweat in order to reap the benefits, you don’t even need special clothes,” Dr. Elizabeth Gardner, a Yale Medicine sports medicine specialist and a team physician at Yale Athletics, told Healthline.

Source: healthline