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Daily Walking Cuts Down Risk of Dementia

Copenhagen, People between the ages of 40 and 79 who took 9,826 steps per day were 50% less likely to develop dementia within seven years, the study found.

Furthermore, people who walked with “purpose” at a pace over 40 steps a minute were able to cut their risk of dementia by 57% with just 6,315 steps a day.

“It is a brisk walking activity, like a power walk,” said study co-author Borja del Pozo Cruz, an adjunct associate professor at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Denmark, and senior researcher in health sciences for the University of Cadiz in Spain.

Even people who walked approximately 3,800 steps a day at any speed cut their risk of dementia by 25%, the study found, the CNN news reported.

The largest reduction in dementia risk (62%) was achieved by people who walked at a very brisk pace of 112 steps per minute for 30 minutes a day, the study found.

Prior research has labeled 100 steps a minute (2.7 miles per hour) as a “brisk” or moderate level of intensity.

Source: Oman News Agency