Do you Really Need 10,000 Steps a Day?

ten thousand appears to be a magic number wanna become an expert in something practice it for ten thousand hours wanna be healthier walk at least ten thousand steps per day but as usual the case for this magic number isn't so magical the ten thousand hours to expertise thing has been debunked and according to recent studies so has the 10 000 step goal that's the topic of this week's healthcare triage [Music] if you have a fitbit you know that when you reach 10 000 steps a day it rewards you with a little electronic celebration on your wrist and why wouldn't it 10 000 steps per day is the optimal number for achieving your health goals right probably not this number came from a japanese marketing campaign for a pedometer in the 1960s the pedometer was given a name that in japanese means the 10 000 step meter according to one article the japanese researcher whose work underlies the pedometer was concerned that the japanese lifestyle was becoming too inactive and he thought he could help address this by encouraging people to increase their steps to 10 000 per day according to another article the name was chosen because the japanese character for 10 000 resembles a person walking regardless of the reason there was no actual research behind the choice of the number but marketing campaign or not increasing your steps to 10 000 sounds like a great idea we know the benefits of physical activity so upping those steps has to be great for the lifespan right well now we've got data to the research a study published in 2019 examined the association between number of steps per day and all cause mortality in over 16 000 older women the mean age of the women was 72 and any participant reporting less than good health was excluded step counts were measured for seven days and all-cause mortality was assessed in a 4.3 year follow-up researchers adjusted for several factors including smoking body mass index and stepping intensity the results an average of just 4 400 steps per day was enough to significantly decrease mortality rates compared to approximately 2 700 steps per day mortality rates did decrease the steps increase but this leveled off around 7 500 steps per day okay so what about younger people what about men back to the research study published in september of 2021 examined the relationship between number of steps per day and all-cause mortality in 2110 middle-aged men and women participants ages ranged from 38 to 50 years old and included anyone whose steps were recorded for at least three days for at least 10 hours per day as in the former study several factors were adjusted for including step intensity in a 10.8 year follow-up researchers reported higher mortality risk for individuals who had less than 7 000 steps per day compared to those who had more than 7 thousands tests per day again taking more than 10 000 steps per day did not result in further decreased mortality risk these studies are of course not perfect for example we'd like to see steps measured over a longer period of time in order to get a better idea of people's general activity also without randomized controlled trials we can't say that there's a specific causal relationship here but randomized controlled trials in this area could be tricky controlling the number of steps a person takes in a day would have a lot of challenges there's also physical activity like weight lifting that is good for health but doesn't contribute to step counts and it's really hard to control for all the factors in a person's biology and environment that affect all-cause mortality we do know that physical activity is good for you so keep on stepping but trumping up and down your hallway at 11 55 pm to get those final steps and make it to 10 000 isn't necessary it doesn't look like there's any reason to insist on reaching ten thousand per day page enjoyed this episode you might enjoy this previous episode on isbut legs spoiler alert it's not we'd appreciate it if you'd like and subscribe to the video down below and if you go to patreon.com healthcaretriage where you can help make the show bigger and better we'd especially like to thank our research associates james glasgow joe sevitz edward lillahome and brian nam and of course our surgeon admiral sam