46.4000步(1663)

Passage Forty-Six

4,000 steps

【1】Even walking as few as 4,000 steps a day may reduce your risk of dying from any cause, the largest analysis to date suggests – although the more you walk, the greater the health benefits(advantages).The idea that a sedentary lifestyle is linked to poorer health is well-established, but it has been unclear what the optimal(best) number of steps people should aspire(pursue) to is, and whether there is an upper limit beyond which further health gains are minimal(tiny).

【2】To investigate, researchers led by Maciej Banach , a professor of cardiology at the Medical University of Łódź in Poland, drew on data from 17 previous studies – involving 226,889 people, who were followed for an average seven years – to assess the health impacts(influences) of different daily step counts.

【3】The study, published in the European Journal of Preventive cardiology , suggested that walking at least 3,967 steps a day started to reduce the risk of dying from any cause, while 2,337 steps a day reduced the risk of dying from cardiovascular diseases(sicknesses).Above these cut-offs, each increase of 1,000steps a day was associated with a 15% reduction in the risk of dying from any cause, while an increase of 500 steps a day was associated with a 7% reduction in dying from cardiovascular disease.

【4】“Our study confirms that the more you walk, the better. We found that this applied to both men and women, irrespective(unconcerned) of age, and irrespective of whether you live in a temperate, subtropical or subpolar region(area) of the world, or a region with a mixture of climates,” Banach said. “In addition, our analysis indicates that as little as 4,000 steps a day are needed to significantly(observably) reduce deaths from any cause, and even fewer to reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease.”

【5】For younger age groups, the sharpest improvement in health was seen in individuals taking between 7,000 and 13,000 daily steps, while for those aged 60 years and over, it was at between 6,000 to 10,000 steps.The team also assessed the impact of walking up to 20,000 steps per day – between 9 and 10miles for the average person – and found the benefits continued to increase. However, they cautioned(warned) that data for such “high steppers” remains limited.

【6】Banach said: “In a world where we have more and more advanced(progressive) drugs to target specific(unique) conditions such as cardiovascular disease, I believe we should always emphasise(underline) that lifestyle changes, including diet and exercise might be at least as, or even more, effective in reducing cardiovascular risk and prolonging(lengthen) lives.

【7】“We still need good studies to investigate whether these benefits may exist for intensive types of exertion, such as marathon running and ironman challenges, and in different populations of different ages, and with different associated health problems. However, it seems that, as with pharmacological treatments, we should always think about personalising lifestyle changes.”

【8】According to the World Health Organization, insufficient(deficient) physical activity is now the fourth most frequent cause of death in the world, with 3.2million deaths a year attributed to it. Before Covid-19 struck, the worldwide average daily number of steps was 5,324 – 5,444 in the UK – but the pandemic resulted in reduced levels of physical activity, and people’s daily step count still had not returned to baseline 2 years later .

【9】James Leiper, the associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “This research shows us just how good walking is for our health. If you packaged the benefits as a pill(medicine), we would be hailing(complimenting) it as a wonder drug. What’s great about walking is that it does not require special equipment or training, and you can do it almost anywhere.”

第四十六课

4000步

一项迄今为止最大规模的分析表明，每天走4000步，就能降低因任何原因而死亡的风险，走得越多，对健康的好处就越大。较差的健康状况与久坐不动的生活方式有关，这一观点已经得到了证实，但人们应该追求的最佳步数是多少，以及是否存在一个上限，超过这个上限，健康收益就会微乎其微，这些一直不清楚。

为了研究这些问题，波兰罗兹医科大学心脏病学教授马切伊·巴拿赫领导的研究人员利用之前17项研究的数据，这些研究涉及226889人，平均随访了7年，评估了不同的每日步数对健康的影响。

这项发表在《欧洲预防心脏病学杂志》上的研究表明，每天走3967步就能降低因任何原因而死亡的风险，而每天走2337步就能降低死于心血管疾病的风险。在这些临界值之上，每天每多走1000步，因任何原因而死亡的风险就会降低15%，而每天多走500步，死于心血管疾病的风险就会降低7%。

巴拿赫说：“我们的研究证实，走得越多越好，我们发现，无论男女，无论年龄大小，也无论是生活在世界上的温带、亚热带、亚极地地区，还是生活在混合气候地区，这一点都适用。此外，我们的分析表明，每天只需走4000步就能显著减少任何原因导致的死亡，而减少心血管疾病导致的死亡只需更少的步数。”

在较年轻的年龄组中，每天走7000到13000步的人健康状况得到了最大改善，而对于60岁及以上的人来说，每天走6000到10000步的人健康状况得到了最大改善。研究小组还评估了每天步行2万步（相当于普通人步行9到10英里）的影响，发现益处在持续增加。然而，他们警告说，对于这些“高强度行走者”，数据有限。

巴拿赫说：“如今我们拥有越来越多的先进药物来治疗心血管疾病等特定病症，但我相信我们应该始终强调生活方式的改变，包括饮食和锻炼，在降低心血管疾病风险和延长寿命方面至少可能同样有效，甚至更有效。”

“我们仍然需要深入研究来调查这些益处是否存在于马拉松和铁人三项这样的高强度运动中，以及是否存在于不同年龄的人群和有不同相关健康问题的人群中。然而，就像药物治疗一样，我们似乎应该始终考虑因人而异的生活方式变化。”

世界卫生组织的数据显示，锻炼不充分是全球第四大死亡风险因素，每年有320万人因此去世。在新冠肺炎疫情爆发前，全球人均每天步行5324步，英国为5444步，但疫情导致锻炼减少，人们的每日步数在两年后仍未恢复到疫情前水平。

英国心脏基金会的医学副主任詹姆斯·莱珀说：“这项研究向我们展示了步行对我们的健康的好处。如果你把这些好处比作药，我们会称赞它是灵丹妙药。步行的好处在于它不需要特殊的设备或训练，你几乎可以在任何地方进行。