New Research Reveals: Living Longer is Possible with Just 4,000 Steps Daily

Getting just under 4,000 steps each day may be enough to lower a person’s risk of early death, researchers say—far less than the 10,000 steps many believe to be the optimal amount for health.

The news comes from a new meta-analysis, published Wednesday in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. It's the world's largest study to date showing the importance of daily step counts.

The overall consensus: 'The more you walk, the better,' lead study author Maciej Banach, Professor of Cardiology at the Medical University of Lodz in Poland, said in a news release.

But researchers found that as few as 3,967 steps daily were enough to start reducing the risk of early death from all causes. That number dropped to just 2,337 daily steps to begin lowering the risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

It doesn't stop there—with every extra 500 to 1,000 steps a day, the research showed that people can continue to reduce their risk of dying from cardiovascular disease or any cause, respectively. And scientists noted that they have yet to identify an upper limit to the benefits of walking; even at 20,000 steps per day, the health benefits only continued to increase.

“There's no clearly-established exact step goal; the classic 10,000 steps isn't necessarily data-backed,' said Eric Brandt, MD, a cardiologist and lipidologist at the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center, who was not involved in the new research. But 'the more activity you can do, the better, and you're going to keep getting more and more benefit from it.”

In order to see how step counts and mortality risk were linked, researchers analyzed data from nearly 227,000 participants across 17 different studies around the world.

All participants in the included studies, at the start, were considered generally healthy or had some possible risk factors of cardiovascular disease, such as high blood pressure, said Banach, who is also an adjunct professor at the Ciccarone Center for Prevention of Cardiology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Across all studies, participants had an average age of 64 years old, and 49% of participants were female. The included studies followed-up with participants after an average of seven years to see how step counts related to both cardiovascular mortality risk and all-cause mortality risk.

The researchers identified a 'significant inverse association between daily step count and all-cause mortality and [cardiovascular] mortality'—essentially, the more steps taken, the lower the risk of early death from any cause or heart issues.

According to Barach, the minimum number of daily steps needed to start seeing longevity and survival benefits was 3,867; for a lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease in particular, that threshold was 2,337 steps.

Additionally, for every extra 1,000 steps per day, there was a 15% reduction in all-cause mortality; and for every 500 extra steps, there was a 7% reduced risk of cardiovascular death.

Notably, the findings were consistent across different demographic factors, Banach said. Cohorts were based in Japan, the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and other countries, and getting 4,000 steps a day was generally beneficial, regardless of their “climate zone.” The same was true, regardless of gender.

“However, we noticed that the largest reduction of mortality was observed for younger individuals in comparison to older people,” Banach told Health. This could imply that increasing step counts earlier on in life could have an even greater effect.

The analysis also didn't identify an upper limit for steps—though the data was limited, even among people who walked as many as 20,000 steps a day, the health benefits only continued to increase.

'Until now, it's not been clear what is the optimal number of steps, both in terms of the cut-off points over which we can start to see health benefits, and the upper limit, if any, and the role this plays in people's health,' senior study author Ibadete Bytyçi, from the University Clinical Centre of Kosovo, said in a news release. 'However, I should emphasize that there were limited data available on step counts up to 20,000 a day, and so these results need to be confirmed in larger groups of people.'

Other limitations of the study include that it was based on observational data, and that the research only identified an association, not causation—meaning it's possible that health and longevity impacted their step count, not the other way around.

But for the most part, 'more is always better for the number of steps per day,' Banach said.

There are no firm public health guidelines regarding step counts at this point, but this study should be encouraging for people looking to improve their general health.

Prior research has suggested that if a person doesn't get 5,000 steps per day, they were considered sedentary, Banach explained. This research essentially undermines that previous definition, study authors said.

Even though it’s true that the more steps a person takes the better, people may feel “discouraged” if they can’t reach higher step goals, he said. Whether due to work or other constraints, the concern is that people won’t bother with getting more steps in since they feel out of reach.

But globally, people take about 5,000 steps a day on average. Banach’s study then would suggest that many people are not sedentary, but are in fact already reaping some benefits of a lower mortality risk.

Steps can be hard to define—a leisurely stroll or a run would hypothetically both count, Brandt said—but walking to increase step count can be a useful tool to improve health. Unlike other forms of exercise, walking requires no training or special equipment.

Brandt said he tells his patients to track their movement by how many minutes of exercise they’re getting—current guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week.

Banach prefers measuring step count. 

“I always recommend to my patients, to not only measure the time of their activity per week, but also to try to measure their steps per day, or number of steps per week, per month,” he said. “It is a number we can always very strictly associate with the concrete risk reduction of cardiovascular outcomes.”

If someone does choose to go this route, a pedometer, smartphone, or other device, can be a useful way to track steps.

Whether it’s measured in minutes or steps, simple things such as walking a dog, walking to appointments instead of driving, or parking further away from the door can all add more movement into a person’s day to day, Brandt and Banach said. 

And it can also be easier to work in terms of averages, Banach added. 

“[It] doesn’t mean that you need to have, for example, 7,000 or 6,000 steps every day. It means that you should have 6,000 steps per day on average,” he said. “If you do not have time to increase the number of steps during the week, try to be proactive during the weekend.”

The overall findings suggest that, as helpful and essential as medications and treatments are to improve health, lifestyle changes—like diet and exercise—matter just as much, if not more.

'In a world where we have more and more advanced drugs to target specific conditions such as cardiovascular disease,' Banach said in the news release, 'I believe we should always emphasize that lifestyle changes, including diet and exercise [...] might be at least as, or even more effective in reducing cardiovascular risk and prolonging lives.'