It has been too long since my last Medical Minute post.
I found this information while doing my daily medical journal highlights and felt that it would be good to share on Hive.

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How many steps do you need every day?

This is a topic that has recommendations and opinions from every health group and health gurus alike.

Where do these numbers come from?

Probably the most common number is 10,000 steps a day.

This number was actually suggested over twenty years ago by a pedometer manufacturing company in their advertising campaign.

10,000 steps a day does not have significant backing to support it.

Now, don't get me wrong, getting 10,000 steps a day in is an excellent goal.

But for a more accurate number, it is not a hard single number for all.
Certain limitations, physical conditions, and age will need to be factored in for a realistic goal.

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In a recent article published by Dr. Erin E. Dooley, an epidemiologist with the American Heart Association, shows that as we age, the total daily steps are reduced in number.

The most astonishing fact from the article shows that as little as 500 EXTRA steps a day can lead to a reduction of cardiovascular events by 14% within 4 years.

The article also states that the target for the number of steps in adults over 50 is around 4500 steps.

The bottom line is to increase your steps by 500 per day for the average adult over 50.

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Lucky for us (as in we Hiveans), we have a simple tool that can track your activity and actually pay you for posting about your daily activity.

This is, of course, ACTIFIT. Using the Actifit app can help you track your daily activity

So, the take-home of this article for me is to increase your current activity by 500 steps a day. This makes it a much more doable task.

I like the idea of talking to my patients about activity increases by encouraging them to just add 500 steps a day. This is a much more realistic goal than 10,000 steps per day.

Until next time,
John Novak PA-C

The source for this post can be found here.

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