Taking more steps daily may lead to a longer life 每天走路可能會延長壽命

Editor’s note: Moderate physical exercise can help maintain your health. But do not overdo it. Particularly do not do too much work to tear and wear your joints. One important thing to do is daily stimulate our muscles which can not only help maintain muscle mass, but also help prime your normal metabolism to prevent diet-induced disorders.

編者註：適度的體育鍛煉可以幫助您保持健康。 但是不要過分。 特別是不要做太多的工作來撕裂和磨損關節。 要做的一件重要事情是每天刺激我們的肌肉，這不僅可以幫助維持肌肉質量，還可以促進正常的新陳代謝，從而預防飲食引起的疾病。

News Release 20-May-2021

American Heart Association Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle & Cardiometabolic Health Conference — Presentation 69

American Heart Association

Research News

DALLAS, May 20, 2021 — Taking more steps per day, either all at once or in shorter spurts, may help you live longer, according to preliminary research to be presented at the American Heart Association’s Epidemiology, Prevention, Lifestyle & Cardiometabolic Health Conference 2021. The meeting is virtual, May 20-21, and offers the latest science on population-based health and wellness and implications for lifestyle.

Walking is one of the safest and easiest ways to improve fitness and health including heart health. The American Heart Association’s fitness guidelines for adults recommend at least 150 minutes per week of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity, or a combination of both. Popular fitness apps and step counters make it easy to count steps, so researchers used a wearable step counting device to compare the effects of uninterrupted bouts of steps (10 minutes or longer) to occasional short spurts, such as climbing the stairs and general daily activities throughout the day.

“Technological advances made in recent decades have allowed researchers to measure short spurts of activity. Whereas, in the past we were limited to only measuring activities people could recall on a questionnaire,” said lead study author Christopher C. Moore, M.S., a Ph.D. student in epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “With the help of wearable devices, more research is indicating that any type of movement is better than remaining sedentary.”

From 2011-2015, 16,732 women wore a waist step counter that measured their daily steps and walking patterns for four to seven days. The women were all over age 60 (average age of 72; mostly non-Hispanic white women) and were participants in the Women’s Health Study, a large, national study of heart disease, cancer and other long-term disease prevention.

The researchers divided the total number of steps for each study participant into two groups: 1) 10 minutes or longer bouts of walking with few interruptions; and 2) short spurts of walking during regular daily activities such as housework, taking the stairs, or walking to or from a car. In follow-up, they tracked deaths from any cause for an average of six years, through December 31, 2019.

Researchers found:

• Overall, 804 deaths occurred during the entire study period of 2011-2019.
• Study participants who took more steps in short spurts lived longer, regardless of how many steps they had in longer, uninterrupted bouts. The benefits leveled off at about 4,500 steps per day in short spurts.
• Compared to no daily steps, each initial increase of 1,000 steps per day was associated with a 28% decrease in death during the follow-up period.
• A 32% decrease in death was noted in participants who took more than 2,000 steps daily in uninterrupted bouts.

A prior analysis of the same women reported that those who took 4,500 steps per day had a significantly lower risk of death compared to the least active women. “Our current results indicate that this finding holds even for women who did not engage in any uninterrupted bouts of walking. Taking 2,000 or more additional steps during bouts was associated with further benefits for longevity,” Moore said.

“Older adults face many barriers to participating in structured exercise programs, so some may find it more convenient and enjoyable to increase everyday walking behaviors, like parking slightly further from their destination or doing some extra housework or yardwork,” Moore said.

Since all study participants were older and mostly non-Hispanic white women, more research is needed to determine if the results apply to men, younger women and people from diverse racial and ethnic groups.

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Co-authors are Kelly R. Evenson, Ph.D.; Eric J. Shiroma Jr., Ph.D.; Annie G. Howard, Ph.D.; Carmen C. Cuthbertson, Ph.D.; Julie E. Buring, Sc.D.; and I-Min Lee, Sc.D. The authors’ disclosures are listed in the abstract.

The Women’s Health Study is funded by Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. The lead author is funded by a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

Additional Resources:

• Multimedia is available on the right column of release link https://newsroom.heart.org/news/taking-more-steps-daily-may-lead-to-a-longer-life?preview=55d4e7f1f691cdbb4fad712fb190278b
• More steps-per-day linked to significant reductions in diabetes and high blood pressure
• How To Move More, Anytime, Anywhere
• Fit In Walking, Morning, Noon or Night
• Why Is Walking The Most Popular Form Of Exercise?
• Five Ways To Move More at Work and Make it Count 
• For more news from AHA EPI Lifestyle Conference 2021, follow us on @HeartNews Twitter #EPILifestyle21.

Statements and conclusions of studies that are presented at the American Heart Association’s scientific meetings are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the Association’s policy or position. The Association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. The Association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific Association programs and events. The Association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and biotech companies, device manufacturers and health insurance providers are available here, and the Association’s overall financial information is available here.

The American Heart Association’s EPI | LIFESTYLE 2021 Scientific Sessions is the world’s premier meeting dedicated to the latest advances in population-based science. The virtual meeting will be held Thursday and Friday, May 20–21, 2021. The primary goal of the meeting is to promote the development and application of translational and population science to prevent heart disease and stroke and foster cardiovascular health. The sessions focus on risk factors, obesity, nutrition, physical activity, genetics, metabolism, biomarkers, subclinical disease, clinical disease, healthy populations, global health, and prevention-oriented clinical trials. The Councils on Epidemiology and Prevention and Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health (Lifestyle) jointly planned the EPI/Lifestyle 2021 Scientific Sessions. Follow the conference on Twitter at #EPILifestyle21.