The goal of walking 10,000 steps a day has been thrown around for years in the health industry. Recent studies published in JAMA Internal Medicine and JAMA Neurology are the largest conducted to “objectively track step count in relation to health outcomes.” They tracked 78,500 adults with wearable trackers and found “lowered risk of dementia, heart disease, cancer and death are associated with achieving 10,000 steps a day.” Even more interesting, they also found that “a faster stepping pace like a power walk showed benefits above and beyond the number of steps achieved.” These findings suggest that one does not necessarily need to walk 10,000 steps if one can walk at a faster pace, even if it isn’t as many steps.
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Should We Aim for 10k Steps a Day? Maybe Not.
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