What 5,000 Steps a Day Actually Does to Your Body (Doctor Explains)

Forget 10,000 steps. If you are currently doing next to nothing, the jump from where you are now up to around 5,000 steps a day will do more for your health than almost anything else I could ask of you. When researchers pooled together huge studies following tens of thousands of people for years, the curve was steepest right at the bottom. Going from around 2,000 steps up to 4,000 or 5,000 produced the single biggest drop in risk of dying from anything, across the whole range. After that the line keeps improving but it starts to flatten off, so every extra thousand steps buys you a little less than the one before. There is a study I think about often. Researchers took very active young people walking around 10,000 steps a day and asked them to drop down to just 1,500 steps for two weeks. In that short window their blood sugar control got measurably worse, their insulin stopped working as well, fat gathered around their middle and their fitness dropped off. When they started moving again, a lot of it reversed. That is because your muscles are the biggest sugar disposal system you own. Every contraction pulls sugar straight out of your bloodstream without needing to wait for insulin. A body that walks clears sugar out of the blood all day long, and persistently high blood sugar underpins so much of the chronic disease we see. Walking also helps lower blood pressure through something called shear stress, where faster blood flow against the lining of your arteries triggers the release of nitric oxide, your body's own blood pressure medication, which relaxes and widens the vessel walls. Then there is your brain. Moving your muscles releases chemical messengers that prompt your brain to produce more BDNF, a kind of fertiliser for brain cells that supports mood and memory. Some trials have even found that regular walking can work as well as medication for milder depression. A full list of the research references for this video is in the description of the YouTube version. Disclaimer: This is not personal medical advice and does not override what your doctor says. #dralex #walking #preventativehealth