By Karen Kier, Pharmacist
ONU Healthwise Pharmacy

In 1970, the Beatles released The Long and Winding Road on their Let It Be album. The song was the group's 20th number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. Unfortunately, this was the Beatles' last number one hit as a group. The group broke up one month before the song was released.

Paul McCartney was inspired to write the song after visiting his High Park Farm property located in Scotland. He considered it a sad song because of the impending breakup of the Beatles and the emotional toll of the process. There was some disagreement between Paul and the producer as to the orchestration in the final version of the song. McCartney has released different versions of the song and stripped out much of the orchestration.

How can a long and winding road improve your health benefits?

If you ask a search engine how many steps to better health, most will give a standard answer of between 8,000 and 10,000 steps per day. This number is based on research studies showing improved heart health and additional years of life. However, there is not much research data on the best way to reach the 10,000 steps per day. 

Research evidence has proven that with high intensity exercise, including fast-paced walking or jogging, there are additional health benefits, especially for the heart. Not everyone is able to achieve this intensity when exercising, but can you still derive benefit?

A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on October 28, 2025, may help to answer this question. The study was designed to evaluate the association between step accumulation patterns and their effect on heart disease and overall death rates in individuals who took 8,000 steps or fewer each day.

The study evaluated information from 33,560 people with a mean age of 62 years. All of the participants walked few than 8,000 steps a day and did not have pre-existing heart disease or cancer. The researchers followed the group for an average of 7.9 years for heart disease and 9.5 years for death rates.

When evaluating their walking patterns, the researchers created six groups to describe their activity. The first group was those who had short bouts of activity of less than 5 minutes, and the second group had activity levels between 5 and 10 minutes. The third group was individuals with 10 to 15 minutes of activity at a time, while the fourth group was 15 minutes or longer. The participants were put in their groups based on where they accumulated their most steps each day. The fifth group was labeled as sedentary because they had fewer than 5,000 daily steps, and the sixth group was considered low activity with between 5,000 and 7,999 steps per day. 

In evaluating overall death rates, the participants who spent most of their daily steps in bursts of 15 minutes or more had the lowest risk of heart disease and overall death. In contrast, the sedentary group had the worst heart outcomes and death rates. The sedentary group was 4.36% more likely to have an early death compared to the 15-minute group. In addition, the sedentary group was 13.03% more likely to have a heart disease event compared to 4.39% in the 15-minute group. 

What can we learn from this information?

If we are going to take steps, try to walk continuously for at least 15 minutes at a time rather than popping up for a 5-minute walk to the copier or the restroom. Make a conscious effort to keep moving for 15 minutes at a time.

You do not need to get all steps in one activity, but rather in small 15-minute intervals throughout the day. The authors noted that even in those who did not reach 8,000 steps a day, they still had benefits if they did their steps in 15-minute bursts.

Take the long and winding road for at least 15 minutes at a time!!

If you are interested in more information, please contact ONU HealthWise Pharmacy at 419-722-3784.