Key TakeawaysA new study found climbing more than five flights of stairs (or 50 stair steps) daily may reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as stroke, heart attacks, and blood clots.Experts say stair climbing increases your heart rate, which in turn helps strengthen the heart muscle, lowers blood pressure, and lowers cholesterol.Other strategies to prevent heart disease include not smoking, limiting alcohol, and improving sleep.
Key Takeaways
A new study found climbing more than five flights of stairs (or 50 stair steps) daily may reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as stroke, heart attacks, and blood clots.Experts say stair climbing increases your heart rate, which in turn helps strengthen the heart muscle, lowers blood pressure, and lowers cholesterol.Other strategies to prevent heart disease include not smoking, limiting alcohol, and improving sleep.
Nearly 48% of adults in the United States haveheart disease, and it’s the leading cause of death for most Americans.There are steps that people can take to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease, and a new study suggests that some of those steps are literal.
Researchers found that regularly taking the stairs can significantly decrease your risk of heart disease, especiallyatheroscleroticcardiovascular disease (ASCVD),coronary artery disease(CAD), andstroke.
“Short bursts of high-intensity stair climbing are a time-efficient way to improve cardiorespiratory fitness and lipid profile, especially among those unable to achieve the current [CDC] physical activity recommendations,” study authorLu Qi, MD, PhD, a professor at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, told Verywell. “The study provides evidence supporting stair climbing as a potential convenient and time-efficient exercise for prevention of cardiovascular disease.”
Here’s how many stairs you should be taking each day to protect your heart.
6 Reasons You Should Take the Stairs
Take the Stairs
Qi’s team looked at data from 458,860 adult participants in the U.K. Biobank database. None of the participants had been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease at the start of the study. The average age of the participants was 56 years and about 56% of them were female.
During the follow-up, the team identified 39,043 cases of ASCVD, 30,718 cases of CAD, and 10,521 cases of ischemic stroke. They found that adults who climbed more than five flights (or 50 stair steps) daily had a 20% lower risk of developing ASCVD, which includes stroke, heart attacks, and blood clots.
How Many Stairs in a Flight?The number of stairs in a flight varies depending on the building and design, but a typical flight of stairs is13 to 16 steps.
How Many Stairs in a Flight?
The number of stairs in a flight varies depending on the building and design, but a typical flight of stairs is13 to 16 steps.
Qi said the findings provide new evidence of the “protective effects of stair climbing on the risk of ASCVD, particularly for individuals with multiple ASCVD risk factors.”
Another interesting note: The participants who reported climbing stairs daily at first but later stopped were 32% more likely to develop ASCVD than participants who had never reported stair climbing.
A Stair Test Can Help You Gauge Heart Health At Home
Why Stair Climbing Helps Your Heart
Regularly taking the stairs may lower your risk of heart disease because it’s a form of physical activity that increases your heart rate,Vignesh Raghunath, MD, a cardiologist with Atlantic Medical Group, Morristown Medical Center in New Jersey, told Verywell.
When you increase your heart rate through physical activity such as stair climbing, running, or biking, it helps strengthen the heart muscle and makes it more efficient at pumping blood and oxygen throughout your body.
Increasing your heart rate through physical activity also helps regulate and lower blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels, which Raghunath said are significant risk factors for heart disease.
While the study did show a possible link between daily stair climbing and reduced cardiovascular disease risk, experts say it’s not quite enough to say that taking the stairs is going to be a preventive measure for heart health.
“This article shows a correlation with reduced cardiovascular risk, but more research needs to be done to prove a causal relationship,”John A. Osborne, MD, PhD, an American Heart Association volunteer and founder and director of State of the Heart Cardiology in Dallas, Texas, told Verywell. “But it’s very promising and certainly makes sense. I think any activity is useful to reduce cardiovascular risk, but stairs (or inclines) may be more efficient in a time sense!”
What Are Heart Rate Zones?
What If You Can’t Climb Stairs?
Stair climbing is not the only option for heart health. Higgins said that other activities that get your heart rate up—like brisk walking, running, bicycling, or high-speed interval training—are also beneficial. What’s important is a moderate or high intensity level.
“For those looking for an activity that would achieve similar results, walking, running, or participating in moderate-intensity exercise like swimming or yoga on a regular basis would be worthwhile,” said Raghunath. “The key is finding something that works for your health and lifestyle and being consistent.”
While the study found that regularly climbing five flights of stairs a day was linked to a lower risk of some kinds of heart disease, Raghunath said that other factors like lifestyle and diet are also part of the equation.
“This study looked at stair climbing as a singular factor, but when thinking about heart health, you must consider the whole person,” said Raghunath. “Though being more active is certainly beneficial, it is important to also take into account other factors like what you are eating, your weight, environment, and genetic predisposition to heart disease.”
If you want to make heart health a priority,John Higgins, MD, a sports cardiologist with UTHealth Houston, told Verywell that American Heart AssociationLife’s Essential 8can be a helpful place to start. These guidelines include:
What This Means For YouRegularly taking the stairs may have cardiovascular benefits, but so will any other activity you can do at moderate-high intensity and get your heart rate up.
What This Means For You
Regularly taking the stairs may have cardiovascular benefits, but so will any other activity you can do at moderate-high intensity and get your heart rate up.
5 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.American Heart Association.Cardiovascular diseases affect nearly half of American adults, statistics show.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Heart disease facts.Song Z, Wan L, Wang W, et al.Daily stair climbing, disease susceptibility, and risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: A prospective cohort study.Atherosclerosis. Published online September 16, 2023. doi:10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2023.117300World Health Organization.The top 10 causes of death.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Leading causes of death.
5 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.American Heart Association.Cardiovascular diseases affect nearly half of American adults, statistics show.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Heart disease facts.Song Z, Wan L, Wang W, et al.Daily stair climbing, disease susceptibility, and risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: A prospective cohort study.Atherosclerosis. Published online September 16, 2023. doi:10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2023.117300World Health Organization.The top 10 causes of death.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Leading causes of death.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
American Heart Association.Cardiovascular diseases affect nearly half of American adults, statistics show.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Heart disease facts.Song Z, Wan L, Wang W, et al.Daily stair climbing, disease susceptibility, and risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: A prospective cohort study.Atherosclerosis. Published online September 16, 2023. doi:10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2023.117300World Health Organization.The top 10 causes of death.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Leading causes of death.
American Heart Association.Cardiovascular diseases affect nearly half of American adults, statistics show.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Heart disease facts.
Song Z, Wan L, Wang W, et al.Daily stair climbing, disease susceptibility, and risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease: A prospective cohort study.Atherosclerosis. Published online September 16, 2023. doi:10.1016/j.atherosclerosis.2023.117300
World Health Organization.The top 10 causes of death.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Leading causes of death.
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