Steps to better health

Preventive Medicine recently published encouraging information for women at risk for diabetes. By taking a few thousand extra steps per day, sedentary individuals at risk can significantly improve their health and decrease their chances of developing diabetes.

Researchers indicated that most sedentary people log about 4,000 to 6,000 steps per day. Their goal of increasing this to 10,000 steps per day was based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Sports Medicine.

The participants in the study spent four "control" weeks walking 4, 972 steps per day. In the following eight weeks their steps increased to 9,213 per day. While no one lost weight during the study, there were great improvements in glucose tolerance and significant drops in blood pressure readings.

Most of the participants admitted that increasing their activity was not easy to do, but realized that all it took was parking at the far end of the parking lot or getting up to see a co-worker rather than emailing them. These little changes made all the difference for ordinarily sedentary individuals to almost double their walking distance each day.