When it comes to the many wellness mantras out there, walking 10,000 steps every day has to be one of the most well-known of them all. Walking offers plenty of benefits for both physical and mental health. The simple exercise can improve cardiovascular health, manage weight, enhance your mood, reduce stress and improve the quality of your sleep.

However, new research has revealed that people should take fewer than 10,000 steps every day.

Research indicates that the magic number is around 7,000 daily steps. Achieving that mark has been linked to significantly lower risks of health issues as wide-ranging as dementia, heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

According to the study, published in The Lancet Public Health Journal, the impact ranged from a 6% reduction in cancer risk to a 38% decline in dementia. The 7,000-step target was also connected to a 28% lower risk of falls, which can be fatal for elderly people.

Dr Daniel Bailey, a reader in sedentary behaviour and health at Brunel University of London, who was not part of the study says that the findings “debunk the myth that 10,000 steps per day should be target for optimal health.”

While the benefits of walking is widely known, the new analysis is the first to explore how getting your steps in can suppress the risk of multiple health issues, according to the international research team.

Researchers looked at data from over 160,000 people across 32 studies and found that people with even modest step counts of around 4,000 a day had better health outcomes than people with very sedentary lives, getting around half the number of daily steps.

People with conditions such as heart disease did better the more they walked. However, the study found that the benefits appeared to level off after about 7,000 steps for other health outcomes.

Dr Bailey added: “The real-world implications are that people can get health benefits just from small increases in physical activity such as doing an extra 1,000 steps per day.”

The report does have some limitations, including the fact that the findings on cancer and dementia are less certain, as they come from a few studies, and some of the included studies did not fully account for factors such as age or frailty.

However, the researchers say that the findings could be encouraging for people who are not very active, as the 7,000 count is a more realistic goal than the unofficial target of 10,000 steps.

Steven Harridge, a professor of human and applied physiology at King’s College London who was not involved with the study, welcomed the research. 

He said: “This study adds to the body of knowledge that shows physical activity is vitally important for health, and anything that encourages people to be more active is a good thing for both physical and mental health.”