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Painting By Numbers: One Small Step for Reduced Health Risk, 15,000 a day for you…

By On March 27, 2017 · Leave a Comment · In Uncategorized

The latest of my irregular posts elaborating on my new book, Painting By Numbers…   It’s only fair to recognize when numbers are reported appropriately. I’d started hearing about the mysteriously accepted “10,000 steps daily” number several years ago when wearable fitness devices started getting attention. Seemingly overnight, it seemed 10,000 became to the exercise […]

The latest of my irregular posts elaborating on my new book, Painting By Numbers…
 
It’s only fair to recognize when numbers are reported appropriately. I’d started hearing about the mysteriously accepted “10,000 steps daily” number several years ago when wearable fitness devices started getting attention. Seemingly overnight, it seemed 10,000 became to the exercise world what PI is to the world of math.
 
This morning, I read an article about 15,000 steps a day! The article reviews a study in which Scottish postal workers, those walking to deliver the mail and those in sedentary back office positions, were studied to determine any association with risk of heart and other diseases.
 
The first thing I learned is that the 10,000 number has never been scientifically validated as a means of reducing health risk, though I’m certain it has been for selling fitness products. The study did reveal, for this small sample size, that a high level of activity does indeed show an association with reduced health risk and that the more activity, the lower the risk. The reason I am pointing out the article, though, is that it makes it clear that there is merely an ASSOCIATION between activity and health, adhering to Commandment Eight in Painting By Numbers, Suspect the (Co)mpany They Keep (i.e., making a bright line distinction among co-location, coincidence, correlation, causation, convergence, and consensus). The article further underscores the study’s other limitations. I like the conclusion: “…the findings imply there are good reasons to get up and move…” Rather than push towards the realm of certainty, the article makes clear that there is only an “implication.”
 
Exercise is kind of the reverse of smoking. Anyone who smoked cigarettes or still does probably knows just by what is happening to their body that the habit is terrible for you. By the same token, I’ve never heard anyone, unless they injure themselves, come back from vigorous exercise and say, “Well, damn, I feel worse!”
 
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/22/well/move/should-15000-steps-a-day-be-our-new-exercise-target.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fgretchen-reynolds&action=click&contentCollection=undefined&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection
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