{"id":124427,"date":"2025-09-09T05:16:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T05:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/124427\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T05:16:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T05:16:13","slug":"heres-how-many-steps-to-walk-a-day-to-lower-dementia-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/124427\/","title":{"rendered":"Here’s How Many Steps To Walk A Day To Lower Dementia Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

No need to panic if you\u2019re not a gym person \u2013 doctors previously told HuffPost UK<\/a> that walking often is a pretty amazing way to look after your health, even if strength training optimises<\/a> its benefits further. <\/p>\n

In fact, the exercise may even help to slash dementia risk, especially if you carry genes<\/a> that make developing the condition more likely.<\/p>\n

Some good news: a recent study found that walking for 7,000 steps a day<\/a> (far fewer than the often-cited 10,000 steps) was linked to 38% lower odds of getting dementia. <\/p>\n

However, according to a 2022 paper, you\u2019ll want to walk a little more than that to slash your risk by an impressive 51%. <\/p>\n

How many steps should I walk per day to decrease my dementia risk?<\/p>\n

Any exercise is beneficial \u2013 as we\u2019ve said before, 7,000 steps may cut your risk by 38%. <\/p>\n

And even 2,000 steps a day<\/a> was found to be better for our cognitive and overall health than nothing at all.<\/p>\n

But a 2022 study<\/a>, which looked at data from 78,430 adults aged 40-79 and followed up for seven years, said that \u201ca dose of just under 10,000 steps per day may be optimally associated with a lower risk of dementia\u201d.<\/p>\n

Those who took 9,826 steps daily on average had a 51% lower likelihood of developing dementia in this study. <\/p>\n

So, in short: the more you walk, the better the dementia-preventing benefits may be, up to about 9,800 steps a day. <\/p>\n

Your pace matters<\/p>\n

The same study found that these benefits were most strongly associated with \u201csteps performed at higher intensity\u201d. <\/p>\n

More specifically, they put the optimal 30-minute cadence<\/a> at 112 steps per minute.<\/p>\n

They are not the first to link increased walking speed to improved health outcomes \u2013 faster walking has been linked to<\/a> a 20% reduction in premature death compared to 4% for slower walkers.<\/p>\n

Speaking to HuffPost UK previously, hospital doctor and consultant practitioner, Dr Hussain Ahmad<\/a>, said \u201cbrisk\u201d walking means \u201cyou\u2019re walking fast enough to feel warmer and breathe a bit harder, but still able to hold a conversation\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No need to panic if you\u2019re not a gym person \u2013 doctors previously told HuffPost UK that walking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[854,6647,102,56,54,55,6899],"class_list":{"0":"post-124427","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-dementia","9":"tag-fitness","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom","14":"tag-walking"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}