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Kerry Stewart has had a long-running feud with his wife when it comes to their two-story home outside Baltimore.
“I keep telling my wife I’m living in my two-story house, and she keeps saying we should move to a one-story house,” says Stewart.
Stewart, a 78-year-old exercise physiologist at Johns Hopkins, believes that going up and down the stairs helps seniors stay fit, herself included.
He is not alone. Some research has found that seniors who climb more stairs have lower mortality rates and better ability to perform basic tasks.
The various studies are mainly observational and may be distorted by confounding factors – for example, people who are healthy for other reasons may use stairs more. But they emphasize that fitness is not achieved only in the gym or through formal workouts.
“You can climb the stairs in 10 or 15 seconds, but over the course of the day, that benefit adds up,” says Stewart, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins. “People who lead active lives, even at a low level, can reap huge benefits over time.”
Scientists once thought that for cardiovascular fitness we needed to exercise for 20 minutes or more at a time. That thinking has evolved. A little exercise throughout the day can be equally beneficial. In some cases, it may be more beneficial in reducing cardiovascular risk factors.
This has been shown by research on walking. The study found that by age 60, walking an average of 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day reduced the risk of death. After age 60, the mortality rate drops to 6,000 to 8,000 steps per day. The researchers told Baron that it didn’t matter whether the steps were spread out over several sessions or clustered together into a longer walk.
Climbing stairs is a more intense exercise than walking, and it appears to offer benefits of its own. The stairs not only improve your heart health; They build leg muscles and improve your balance.
Over the past century, everything from cars to the automation of daily household chores to online shopping has removed physical activity from our lives, says Bethany Barron Gibbs, chair of the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at West Virginia University School of Public Health. “Taking the master bedroom on the first floor is another way we’ve taken physical activity out of our lives.”
She moves forward. “A lot of European cities were built and designed before cars, and they’re far more walkable. And there’s also more infrastructure for biking and more active transportation in general.”
Gibbs, who is a volunteer specialist for the American Heart Association, says Americans should remodel their lives to add more exercise by walking or climbing stairs whenever possible, or even choosing to do their own shopping instead of online shopping. “The stairs are a great way to bring work activity back into our lives,” she says.
What is the danger of falling on stairs? Falls from stairs are a concern—especially for senior citizens. But the risks may be relative.
Stairs equipped with handrails, for example, pose less risk of falls for seniors than walking around the neighborhood, says geriatrician Mira Shefrin of Stanford Medicine. She says senior citizens sometimes fall because they do not lift their feet high enough while walking and they stumble over uneven terrain. She says that climbing stairs builds the same leg muscles that help us walk properly.
He likes the idea of stairs for senior citizens who can handle them. And she thinks it’s a good idea to have an option without stairs for seniors as their health declines.
“If you’re in good health, it’s OK to buy a house with stairs,” she says. “But I also recommend buying a house with a first-floor bedroom and bathroom.”
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