But precisely how much exercise might be needed in order to avoid heart disease has remained very much in question. The Glaswegian mail carriers generally cover their routes on foot, not by driving, and spend many hours each day walking, the scientists knew. None had a personal history of heart disease, although some had close relatives with the condition. Advertisement Continue reading the main storyThese differences were echoed in the volunteers’ risk factors for heart disease, the researchers found. “It takes effort,” he says, but we can accumulate 15,000 steps a day by walking briskly for two hours at about a four-mile-per-hour pace, he says.

Source: New York Times March 22, 2017 09:56 UTC