Research shows that daily walking can help prevent dementia.
More benefits can be found for every 2,000 extra steps you take.
Data shows that walking faster may be even better for health.
Walking is a great way to improve your health and stave off cognitive decline and other age related ailments, even if you only do a moderate amount each day.
While 10,000 steps a day is considered the ideal to improve health, as few as 3,800 steps a day has benefits, and walking at a faster pace is even better for you.
Researchers looked at data from 78,430 mostly white UK adults who were 40 to 70 years old and compared step counts, average speed, and health outcomes over seven years of follow-up.
The risk of early death was lower for every 2,000 steps taken per day, up to 10,000 steps a day.
The risk of dementia is reduced by 25 percent if you walk just 3,800 steps a day. People who walked a lot had a lower risk of dementia.
According to data, walking pace and intensity made a difference for health outcomes, with faster walkers showing greater benefits for cognitive health and prevention of illnesses.
The optimal speed for a 30 minute walk was 112 steps per minute, slightly faster than what previous research has identified as a healthy, brisk walking speed.
Participants got more benefits in less steps if they were intentional with their walking, rather than just moving from room to room during their day. The ideal amount of walking was 6000 steps a day.
According to the researchers, both walking distance and speed can be used to improve health and reduce risk of illness.
"For protective health benefits, people could not only aim for 10,000 steps a day but also aim to walk faster," said Dr Matthew Ahmadi in a press release.
A fast walking pace and shorter step count could have benefits.
A study found that a brisk walking pace, more than three miles an hour, was the most effective for slowing the signs of aging.
A study found that walking reduced the risk of early death by as much as 4%.
Daniel Lieberman, a Harvard paleoanthropologist who has studied the evolution of exercise, told Insider that the idea of walking 10,000 steps a day is based on marketing.
The number 10,000 was chosen because it was easy to remember and was popularized by a Japanese company.
If you want to be active, you need to aim for 10,000 steps, which is about five miles.
We need those nudgings to help people get started because we all have fundamental instincts to avoid unnecessary activity.
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