Study details

For the analysis, published in The Lancet Public Health, researchers looked at data from 57 studies on daily steps and health outcomes, with sample sizes ranging from 61,594 to 161,176.

They found there was a significant reduction in risks of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, dementia, and falls in people logging more steps, and that these outcomes were best around 5,000 to 7,000 steps per day, with no extra benefit beyond that.

Specifically, the researchers found that when compared to 2,000 steps per day, walking 7,000 steps per day was associated with a:

• 47% lower risk of all-cause mortality
• 47% lower risk of cardiovascular disease mortality
• 38% lower risk of dementia
• 37% lower risk of cancer mortality
• 28% lower risk of falls
• 25% lower risk of cardiovascular disease incidence
• 22% lower risk of depressive symptoms
• 14% lower risk of type 2 diabetes

The researchers found there was no significant difference in the risk of falls, cancer, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular mortality between people who walked 7,000 steps a day and those who walked 10,000 steps a day.

Melody Ding, lead author of the analysis and an epidemiologist at the University of Sydney School of Public Health, noted that there was some improvement beyond 7,000 steps for dementia and all-cause mortality risk, though it was small.

Decades of research has found that walking improves metabolic health, makes the heart stronger and more efficient, and reduces weight, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels, according to Keith Baar, a physiologist at the University of California, Davis.

"It is just as important to walk 7,000 steps a day as it is to take your pills," said Joshua Knowles, a cardiologist at Stanford Health Care.

Many people are fairly sedentary, but the baseline for the human body is to be active, according to Sean Heffron, assistant professor of medicine at New York University Langone Health and NYU Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease, so it makes sense that moving less is linked to more health problems.

"The less you move, the less your muscles get engaged, the less exerkines, which are these special chemicals that are released with muscle contractions that benefit levels of inflammation, benefit blood vessel health, but also improve insulin sensitivity and improve blood pressure, and probably have some impact on cognitive function," Heffron said. "As there's less of that movement, the rates of all the detrimental conditions increase."

Hannah Arem, an epidemiologist at MedStar Health Research Institute, said that while higher step counts aren't harmful, no one should feel guilty if they can't reach 10,000 steps a day.

While the new analysis is correlational and can't prove walking actually caused the health benefits it showed, the evidence is overwhelming that "any steps are good steps," said Seth Martin, a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins Medicine. And while not everyone can remember how many minutes they exercised, they can measure their steps with their smartphone.

"If you improve your step count, you are impacting your health across the board," Martin said.