[HN Gopher] Climbing 50 steps a day can cut your risk of heart d...
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       Climbing 50 steps a day can cut your risk of heart disease by 20%
        
       Author : geox
       Score  : 28 points
       Date   : 2023-11-26 22:32 UTC (28 minutes ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (news.tulane.edu)
 (TXT) w3m dump (news.tulane.edu)
        
       | MuffinFlavored wrote:
       | What about walking 0 steps a day for 50 years and then trying to
       | make up for lost time?
        
         | tonmoy wrote:
         | I guess it'll be better than not trying to make up for lost
         | time
        
         | smt88 wrote:
         | In all seriousness, there's a lot of research showing huge
         | benefits of starting to exercise later in life. It's almost as
         | helpful as exercising the whole time (in terms of avoiding
         | cardiac events).
        
           | XorNot wrote:
           | Yeah there's basically no such thing as "too late". We're
           | adaptable creatures - that biological programming to try and
           | conserve energy at all costs (basically why we need to force
           | ourselves to exercise) also works the other way - the body is
           | pretty happy to start making big changes when it believes
           | it's under a moderate physical stress.
           | 
           | The amount of improvement I've gotten from 20 minutes on a
           | rowing machine 5 days a week - and let's be clear, that's
           | basically all I do on the logic of "I can spare 1 YouTube
           | video of time (and still watch the video)" is insane.
        
         | FartyMcFarter wrote:
         | Better than nothing as long as you don't push too hard too
         | quickly.
        
         | timeon wrote:
         | You need to count in recovery time.
        
       | traceroute66 wrote:
       | Daily exercise will cut your risk of heart disease.
       | 
       | Shock, horror.
       | 
       | Can't believe this stuff really counts as university research.
       | 
       | I mean what next, "university finds stopping at red light cuts
       | risk of road accidents" ?
        
         | smt88 wrote:
         | 50 steps for a 20% lower risk is a surprising and important
         | result. It's less time/effort than people expect for that
         | amount of benefit.
         | 
         | Lots of people assume they can't exercise enough for it to
         | matter and then decide not to exercise at all. This result
         | could help change their minds.
        
         | allan_s wrote:
         | I think it's for those who thinks that 10000 steps a day is too
         | much a change in their lifestyle.
         | 
         | 50 steps a day instead can simply be a "take the stairs rather
         | than the elevator" change in your daily routine.
        
         | wtallis wrote:
         | There's value in quantifying the benefit even after the
         | existence of the benefit is universally believed.
        
       | ergocoder wrote:
       | I live in a 3-story townhouse. Automatic heart disease reduction.
        
         | hesdeadjim wrote:
         | Ha, I had the same thought. Office is on the third floor so I'm
         | up and down 40 steps a day a dozen times. I've wondered what
         | effect that has on the stability of my weight over the span of
         | years.
        
           | doubled112 wrote:
           | Another one of those 3 story townhouse dwellers here. It
           | can't hurt that the fridge is never on the same floor as me
           | either.
        
       | RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote:
       | Is this correlation or causation?
       | 
       | > Researchers also found that those who stopped climbing stairs
       | daily during the study showed a 32% higher risk of cardiovascular
       | disease compared to those who never reported climbing stairs.
       | 
       | Cardiovascular disease is one of the things that would stop
       | people from climbing stairs.
        
         | oldgradstudent wrote:
         | Also, people with umbrellas cause rain to drop. The same team
         | should investigate that
        
         | kiba wrote:
         | At this point, the evidence for physical activity improving
         | health outcome is so strong and varied that I would assume
         | "yes, of course".
        
       | brazzy wrote:
       | Actually makes me feel better about recently having bought a
       | house where I have to constantly go up and down to get stuff
       | (expensive city, so small footprint, 4 floors).
       | 
       | Five flights of stairs? I'm pretty sure I average thirty at
       | least.
        
       | DrNosferatu wrote:
       | What about going down steps?
        
         | albert180 wrote:
         | It's obviously much less demanding and has therefore less
         | health benefits. If you can't climb 50 Stairs you should start
         | exercising ASAP
        
           | kiba wrote:
           | It has less benefit, sure, but probably different benefits.
           | 
           | Running downhill is a great way to get DOMS because of the
           | increased eccentric contraction.
        
         | ez667 wrote:
         | Don't do that. It will cancel out the benefit of going up.
        
       | readingnews wrote:
       | I always wonder how does this compare to any other cardio? For
       | example, I started to run a few years ago. Now my week is
       | something like 5k, 6k, 9k, 12k, 9k, 9k, 3k runs. I usually do not
       | take a day off, as when it starts raining or snowing, this will
       | force me to take 2-3 days off randomly for months on end.
       | 
       | Should I be climbing stairs instead? I never climb stairs near
       | me, I would have to literally go out of my way to find some.
       | (Full disclosure, I sit for work, except for when I was teaching,
       | so I run to try to make up for it. I still do not feel very
       | healthy as I run for say an hour, then sit for like eight, or
       | ten.... "sitting is the new smoking" is not helping).
        
         | Aurornis wrote:
         | Most of these studies about near-trivial effort are basically
         | showing that doing anything at all is better than doing nothing
         | strenuous.
         | 
         | 50 steps per day is basically nothing relative to your running
         | schedule. However, it's a significant step up from a sedentary
         | lifestyle as shown by this study.
         | 
         | For someone like you, ignore these studies. It's more important
         | to do what you enjoy because that's going to translate to more
         | and longer engagement. The exact exercise doesn't really
         | matter.
        
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       (page generated 2023-11-26 23:00 UTC)