Ten thousand has become something of a magic number among people who count their daily steps for health reasons. A new study adds to the evidence that the figure is arbitrary, suggesting that 4,000 steps are enough to convey benefits, reports the BBC. That's not to say people shouldn't aim for 10,000 or even higher: The analysis published Tuesday in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology found that each additional 1,000 steps beyond 4,000 was associated with a 15% reduction in the overall risk of death, per NBC News. That held true for up to 20,000 steps, according to the analysis, which crunched data from about 230,000 people around the world.
"The number of steps over which we might observe significant benefits seems to be lower than we previously thought," says study co-author Maciej Banach of Johns Hopkins University, per USA Today. Even 2,300 steps were enough to boost heart and blood vessels, per the BBC. Still, the more steps, the better, with a notable improvement in mortality risk occurring after 6,000 or 7,000 steps.
"The main message is that we should have as many steps as possible and we should start as early as possible (in terms of age) in order to have the highest health benefits," says lead author Dr. Maciej Banach of the Medical University of Lodz in Poland. On that latter point: People under 60 who walked between 7,000 and 13,000 steps daily had a 49% lower risk of death, compared to 42% for those older than 60. (More fitness stories.)
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