Get Healthy by Taking the Stairs

Gregory Minor, a middle-aged housekeeper at Duke University Medical Center, lost 80 lbs. and 10 inches simply by taking the stairs when he was at work. He's the latest success story in the Duke employee health program known as "Take the Stairs." The self-paced exercise program encourages employees to take the stairs and record how many stairs they climb. After certain milestones - climbing the equivalent of a mile, the equivalent of a 5k, and so forth - the employees get rewarded with small gifts. For Minor, the biggest gift of all was watching his waistline shrink. He reports in a YouTube video promoting the program that he now has more energy and feels better about himself.
Research Shows Climbing the Stairs Has Multiple Benefits
The Duke wellness program is based upon research that shows using the stairs over a period of months has significant health benefits. A study in European Heart Journal followed 69 hospital employees who ditched the elevator for the stairs for roughly 90 days. The employees reaped the following benefits:

    Body fat dropped 1.7%
    Waist circumference dropped 1.8%
    Blood pressure fell 2.3%
    LDL cholesterol fell 3.9%
    Lung capacity went up 8.6%

Given these statistics, it's not surprising that Gregory Minor lost 80 pounds after 18 months the stairs of Duke Universitdical Center.
Add Years to Your Life and to Your Years
The perks Minor experienced are one small glimpse at the benefits of stair climbing. People who are regular stair climbers generally live longer and have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those who take the elevator instead. A Harvard study estimated that 8 flights of stairs per day could reduce your death rate by as much as 32%. Furthermore, as Minor reported when he said he had more energy, stair climbers have better leg strength and aerobic capacity than those who take the elevator, leading to a greater quality of life. Most average, sedentary adults gain an average of two pounds per year. Over ten or fifteen years, this gradual increase in weight leads to an extra twenty or thirty pounds of body weight, resulting in numerous health complications. However, a mere two minutes of stair climbing per day over a one-year period can keep those annual twonds at bay.