Hiking into peak condition

Read this article the other day. Interesting.

Climb up the mountain and you clear the fat from your blood. Hike down and you lower your blood sugar. Go in either direction and you reduce your "bad" cholesterol.

These were the conclusions of a study of 45 normally sedentary people who hiked in the Austrian Alps three to five times a week. Blood samples taken after each trip were matched against samples taken before the study started.

If you’re too unfit or weak to scale the peaks, walking downhill still protects against cardiovascular disease and diabetes, says study leader Heinz Drexel, M.D., of the Vorarlberg Institute for Vascular Investigation and Treatment in Feldkirch, Austria. He reported on the study at the 2004 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions.