 Dr. Dan playing pickleball with our youngest son, Thomas. It seems like every time I open a medical journal there is something new has been published about the benefits of exercise. Such was the case in an article published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology published on August 9, 2023.
We’ve known for a long time that exercise decreases the risk of dying, but just how much of an impact it has, and at what level of exercise that impact is achieved has been spotty. In this article researchers combined the data from 17 research studies on the impact of exercise which resulted in data from over 227,000 people (that’s a lot of people, which is a good thing when it comes to research). They found a very strong correlation between the number of steps taken in a day and a decrease of dying from any cause. About half of the causes were from heart disease like heart attack and heart failure. That’s important since heart disease is our number one killer. They discovered, starting at a baseline of about 4,000 steps a day, for every 1,000 additional steps we take we reduce or risk of dying by about 15%. The biggest benefit was in those who went from little walking (about 4,000 steps a day or less) to about 7,500 steps a day. That increase of 3,500 (from 4,000 to 7,500) steps a day decreased the risk of dying by almost 50%! While there continues to be benefits for every incremental increase after that, the benefit per step started to trail off some. The biggest benefit was for those who walked more that 11,500 steps a day (they measured all the way up to 20,000 steps/day) which showed a reduction in mortality of 67%. One of the best things about this article is that it looked at total steps in a day. It didn’t look at how long participants exercises all at once or even how intense they exercised. It showed benefit with any type of walking whether all at once, broken up throughout the day or even if it’s mild. Other research has shown that other types of movement are beneficial too, like biking, hiking, swimming, gardening and yoga, for example. Hmm, I wonder if sky diving, wing-suit gliding or alligator-wrestling count? So, get out there and do something you enjoy that gets you moving. In other words, as we like to say, do-what-moves-you! Pickleball anyone?
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 Set a timer, a few trips up and down the stairs, grab some water, and you're making a difference! Last week I posted about an article which showed how being active for just 22 minutes a day can off-set the increased risk of sitting for most of the day. We’ve known for a long time that any activity is beneficial for our health. When it comes to specific types of activity, though, we often talk about walking. It’s cheap, easy and something almost everyone can do but, just how much of an impact walking has, and at what level that impact is achieved has been spotty.
For example, we’ve all heard of the benefits of taking 10,000 steps a day. But, is that based in any science? The 10,000 step a day goal was actually part of an advertising campaign by a shoe company in Japan. They wanted to sell more shoes! It made sense that the more steps one took the healthier they were, so, why not do it in their shoes? An article recently published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology published on August 9, 2023 attempted to “make science” out of what we previously thought “made sense”. Tomorrow I’ll post a quick summary of the article which tries to answer the question of just how many steps has been shown to help with decreasing the risk of dying. But, in the mean time, how about we talk about “baby steps”, or more specifically in this case, stair steps. On September 15, 2023 researchers in England published their findings in the medical journal Circulation. In this study researchers followed almost a half a million adults for close to 13 years and found that those who walked at least 5 flights of stairs a day decreased their risk of dying by 20%. Interestingly, in this study, there didn’t seem to be much additional benefit for those who did more. Another interesting finding was that those who used the stairs regularly but stopped, increased their risk of dying by more than those who never took the stairs in the first place. I suspect the reason for that was that those that stopped taking the stairs had a reason, like a deterioration in health due to age, moving to a nursing home, arthritis, or a broken hip, for example. Statin drugs like Lipitor and Crestor generally reduce the risk of dying in people with high cholesterol by about 30%. So, think about that for comparison— you can decrease your risk of dying by walking a flight of stairs 5 times a day almost as much as taking a medication, all without the cost or potential side effects of medication. So, rather than avoiding the stairs why not look for reasons to take them instead. Instead of stacking things at the bottom of your stairs (until they accumulate to become worthy to gather all in-hand and take them upstairs) try taking multiple trips of smaller handfuls. Another strategy is to take the stairs instead of the elevator at work. Look for reasons to be a little more active and look for reasons to, as we like to say, do-what-moves-you.  Walking home from church under beautiful blue skies, in the crisp cool air on Sunday. The average American adult spends 9.5 hours a day sitting. Most of that time is a combination of work and leisure activity with about a 50-50 split between the two. Almost all (82%) of that leisure activity is spent watching screens like TVs, phones and computers. [American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) 24 Jan. 2022]
We’ve known for a long time that the more a person spends being sedentary, the higher their likelihood of developing health issues like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer—all of which can increase the risk of early death. A recent study published this month in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (Nov. 2023) sought to examine just how much physical activity might be needed to offset the risk of inactivity. https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/bjsports/57/22/1457.full.pdf It turns out, in people ages 50 and older, sitting for more than 12 hours a day can increase the risk of early death by 38%—but only for those who got less than 22 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day. In other words, being physically active for 22 minutes offset the increased risk of sitting for most of the day. The benefit were seen with an accumulation of at least 22 minutes a day. That is to say, they didn’t have to get it all at once. Activity beyond 22 minutes decreased the risk of dying prematurely even further. So, how can we increase our daily physical activity outside of exercise? How about parking the car at the far end of the WalMart parking lot instead of circling for 10 minutes looking for the closest parking space? Walking the stairs instead of taking the elevator. Other ideas may include:
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Dr. Dan Smithson &
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