Climbing Stairs

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Earlier this month, Andrea Raisi and colleagues [1] published an article on stairs climbing and the risk of major chronic diseases, using data from the UK Biobank. Of the 442,027 people with data on stairs climbing, they found that those who climbed 15 flights of stairs (10 steps per stair) per day or more had a significant reduction in all-cause mortality as well as the incidence of multiple diseases such as heart failure, dementia and type 2 diabetes, compared to those who did not climb stairs. 

Another study also mined the UK Biobank data to show that stairs climbing reduced the risk of type 2 diabetes in people with both low and high genetic risk of diabetes [2].

Yet another prospective study using data from the Harvard Alumni Health Study [3] found that climbing between 10-19 floors per week (1 1/2 to 2 3/4 floors per day) (1 floor = 2 flights or around 20 steps) reduced all-cause mortality, compared to those who didn’t. 

Hence, the popular adage, “take the stairs instead of the lift”.

Which is all very well…the challenge of course is finding the stairs to climb and/or finding the motivation to climb stairs, if they exist.