A new potentially groundbreaking study has revealed the exact number of steps that you should take every single day, as it could help slow down the progression of a disease that affects millions of Americans every single year.
Going for a walk everyday is something that everyone knows is a good idea but plenty of people don't do, as a surprising number of daily routines see people drive to work, sit at a desk, drive home, and then plant themselves on the sofa for the rest of the night.
Walking isn't just a great idea for your bodily health but also that of your mind, as countless scientific studies have shown the numerous positive effects that exercise has on your brain, even in short bursts.
Sometimes all it takes is a 20 to 30 minute stroll to make a huge difference, and a major new study has revealed another unexpected benefit that might force a change in your daily routine.
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As reported by Science News, a new study published in the Nature Medicine journal creates a link between physical activity and the lowered risk of developing Altzheimer's disease, which affects around 7 million people in the United States alone.
Specifically, the study estimates that walking a certain amount every single day can noticeably slow the development of the disease, noting:
"Using pedometer-measured step counts in cognitively unimpaired older adults, we demonstrated an association between higher physical activity and slower cognitive and functional decline in individuals with elevated baseline amyloid."
Additionally, the study discovered that "this beneficial association was not related to lower amyloid burden at baseline or longitudinally. Instead, higher physical activity was associated with slower amyloid-related inferior temporal tau accumulation, which significantly mediated the association with slower cognitive decline."
The study even outlines a specific step count threshold that you start to see a link to delayed cognitive decline, with individuals walking between 3,000 and 5,000 steps per day pushing back the affects of diseases like Alzheimer's for around three years.
If you manage to stretch this all the way up to 5,000 and 7,500 steps per day then you can extend the reprieve even further, with results indicating that the delay lasts for around seven years.
It remains yet to be tested and passed through a clinical trial, but it represents what could be a major breakthrough in the prevention of Alzheimer's, which patients have described in horrifying detail.
"If the disease can be delayed, that can have a very big impact on people's lives," explained Jasmeer Chhatwal, lead author on the study and behavioral neurologist at Harvard Medical School.
On top of this, other studies have proposed a link between the development of Alzheimer's and your gums, so research like this could lead to a point in the future where scientists have a much greater understanding of the disease.