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Longer, Quicker Walks Protect Heart Health

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on Aug 7, 2025.

THURSDAY, Aug. 7, 2025 — Adding distance to your daily walk and picking up your pace can help reduce risk of heart problems associated with high blood pressure, a new study says.

Compared to a minimum step count of 2,300 steps, every 1,000 additional steps are associated with a 17% lower risk of heart attack, heart failure and stroke, researchers reported Aug. 6 in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

“These findings support the message that any amount of physical activity is beneficial, even below the widely recommended daily target of 10,000 steps,” senior researcher Emmanuel Stamatakis, director of the Mackenzie Wearables Research Hub at the University of Sydney in Australia, said in a news release.

“In a nutshell, we found that, if you live with high blood pressure, the more you walk with greater intensity, the lower your risk for future serious cardiovascular events,” Stamatakis said.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 32,000 participants in the UK Biobank, a long-range health study of United Kingdom residents.

These folks all had been diagnosed with high blood pressure, and agreed to wear a wrist device for seven days to measure how far and fast they tended to walk.

The walking data was collected between 2013 and 2015, and then researchers monitored the participants’ heart health for nearly eight years. During that time, more than 1,900 cases of heart problems or stroke happened.

Results showed that for every extra 1,000 steps a day, the participants experienced:

• A 17% lower risk of any heart-related health problems.

• A 22% lower risk of heart failure.

• A 9% lower risk of heart attack.

• A 24% lower risk of stroke.

“This study is one of the first to demonstrate a dose-response relationship between daily step count and major problems of the heart and blood vessels,” Stamatakis said.

The average walking intensity of the participants was nearly 80 steps a minute during the half-hour they walked the fastest each day, researchers found. That pace was associated with a 30% lower risk of heart failure, heart attack and stroke.

Folks who walked or jogged faster than that experienced even lower heart health risk, with no evidence that the faster pace caused any harm, researchers said.

Researchers found similar results when they looked at another 37,000 people who didn’t have high blood pressure. Among those folks, every extra 1,000 steps produced:

• A 20% lower risk of any heart health problems.

• A 23% lower risk of heart failure.

• An 18% lower risk of heart attack.

• A 25% lower risk of stroke.

“Our findings offer patients accessible and measurable targets for heart health, even below 10,000 steps daily,” Stamatakis said. “Future recommendations on walking in people with high blood pressure could consider promoting higher stepping intensity.”

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Posted August 2025

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