Different exercise makes for different effects

People too fat or too weak to start normal exercise may get surprising benefits from a downhill stroll, Austrian researchers reported on Sunday.

Hiking downhill appeared to specifically lower blood glucose levels, in turn reducing the risks or effects of diabetes, according the researchers' study carried out in the Austrian Alps.

"Walking downhill may be a starting mode for sedentary people to begin with exercise," Dr. Heinz Drexel, of the Voralberg Institute in Feldirch, Austria, told a meeting of the American Heart Association.

Hiking may also affect cholesterol levels, Drexel said. Hiking uphill reduced triglycerides, an important component of overall cholesterol. In addition, the so-called "bad cholesterol," low-density lipoprotein (LDL), was lowered by hiking in either direction.

For the study, Drexel and his colleagues at the Vorarlberg Institute persuaded 45 healthy but sedentary people to spend four months hiking on a steep mountain.

For two months, three to five days a week, half of the people hiked uphill and took a cable car back down, while the other half hiked only downhill.

Then they swapped. Drexel's team checked their cable car tickets to make sure they were complying.

A day and a half after a hike the researchers measured cholesterol, including LDL and triglycerides, as well as blood sugar.

Although the researchers had had assumed that hiking downhill would have little beneficial effect, the found that the downhill hikers were better able to handle sugar while hiking upwards showed little impact.

All exercise lowered LDL cholesterol, they found. Uphill hiking also lowered overall triglycerides and helped participants better handle a fat-laden drink.

Drexel said he now wants to test diabetes patients to see if walking downhill will actually help them.

Drexel said that, being Austrian, he has a particular enthusiasm for hiking in steep mountains. "Many groups are trying to find an equivalent in a gymnasium and fitness centers ... but it is more fun to do it in nature.

Dr. Gerald Fletcher of the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, said different societies will have to apply the findings appropriately. "We don't have mountains in Florida," he noted.

Dr. Raymond Gibbons of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, suggested one adaptation. "I walk up five flights of stairs to my office and take the elevator down," he said.