« 10 000 pas par jour » is like a mantra that gets ingrained in our subconscious, but until now, nothing has been proven. A recent Australian study has shown that this recommendation actually reduces the risk of premature death or cardiovascular accidents by almost 40%.
If the World Health Organization recommends 10,000 steps per day to improve our health, this recommendation has struggled to find scientific support. Australian researchers have recently validated this idea. “The origins of the belief that people should take 10,000 steps per day are not clear,” reads the article in the magazine “New Scientist”. “But this may be linked to the promotion of pedometer marketing campaigns in Japan.”
But is it scientifically proven? Researchers from the University of Sydney have just confirmed this idea. By scrutinizing data from more than 72,000 people, the researchers found that starting from 2,200 steps per day, the risk of death decreased. But above all, they found that taking 9,000 to 10,000 steps per day reduced the risk of premature death or cardiovascular accidents by 39%. And these benefits can counteract the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle on our health.
For Dr. Matthew Ahmadi, lead author of this study, “This is not in any way a free pass card for sedentary people for long periods of time. However, it contains an important public health message that all movements are important and that people can and should try to compensate for the health consequences of inevitable sitting time by increasing the number of daily steps.”