Hiking uphill clears fats , downhill reduces blood sugar more/Stem Cell Panel Expects to Award Grants

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Jan 6, 8:26 PM EST

 

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Downhill Exercise May Be a Good Thing

 

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE

AP Medical Writer

 

 

 

 

 

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- If exercise is too much of an uphill battle, you may

want to try the downside. A novel study of hikers in the Alps made the

intriguing discovery that different types of exercise had different effects

on fats and sugars in the blood.

 

Going uphill cleared fats from the blood faster, going downhill reduced

blood sugar more, and hiking either way lowered bad cholesterol.

 

Both types of hiking are beneficial, but one may help diabetics more than

the other, said Dr. Heinz Drexel of the Academic Teaching Hospital of

Feldkirch, Austria, who reported the research at a recent American Heart

Association conference in New Orleans.

 

His was a most unusual study, involving steep mountains and lifts at a ski

resort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

" If you think about this in practical terms, it's pretty hard to imagine how

any human being could just go one way and get back to where they started

unless they happen to live near a cable car, which was used in this study, "

said Dr. Raymond Gibbons, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester,

Minn., who had no role in the research.

 

Still, Dr. Gerald Fletcher, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in

Jacksonville, Fla., said the findings could be applied in the real world:

People who work in office buildings, for example, could take the stairs one

way and the elevator the other, depending on what their exercise goals were.

 

Hiking uphill is concentric exercise, where muscles are shortened, which

happens when you bend your arm or step upward. Going downhill is eccentric

muscle work, such as extending your arm or actively resisting stretching,

which happens when you step down.

 

The Austrian researchers tested both forms of exercise on 45 healthy people

who normally exercised very little. For the study, the participants took

three to five hourlong hikes each week. For two months they hiked uphill and

rode the ski lift down. The next two months they took the lift up and hiked

down.

 

 

 

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Their blood sugar and cholesterol levels were checked before the study

started and after each two-month exercise segment. They also were given

tests to see how quickly and well their blood removed fats and sugar after

each exercise phase.

 

The hikers made no changes in their diets, so that the effects of the

exercise could be isolated.

 

The researchers were surprised to find that hiking downhill removed blood

sugars and improved glucose tolerance, while uphill hiking mostly improved

levels of fats called triglycerides.

 

This could be good news for diabetics, who often have trouble with

concentric and many types of aerobic exercise, Drexel said. They may be

better able to tolerate downhill hiking, and may get more out of it, too. It

also might be a good way for people who do not exercise now to get started,

Drexel suggested.

 

One problem with going downhill a lot is pressure on the knees. Fletcher

said more gyms need exercise machines that work downhill muscles without

stressing knees.

 

 

Jan 7, 7:55 AM EST

 

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Stem Cell Panel Expects to Award Grants

 

By PAUL ELIAS

AP Biotechnology Writer

 

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

doesn't have a home, any money, or even a single employee, but the head of

the new state agency expects to be awarding its first grants for stem cell

research by May.

 

" We have a responsibility to move as quickly as possible, " Robert Klein said

Thursday. " I admit that I am an optimist. "

 

The institute was created by California voters in November when they

approved a $3 billion bond to fund stem cell research over the next decade.

 

The 29-member committee appointed to manage the institute met Thursday and

began to rectify the mind-numbing bureaucratic problems that need to be

solved before the agency can be launched in full.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Independent Citizen's Oversight Committee sorted through issues ranging

from mundane personnel matters to grappling with the appropriateness of

patenting genes and other life forms. Its only business in one earlier

meeting was to appoint Klein as chairman and biotech company founder Edward

Penhoet as vice chairman.

 

The committee members began the process of getting a $3 million loan from

the state treasurer so the agency can hire staff and begin operating. They

also appointed a seven-member committee to locate a headquarters and find

office space.

 

Many of the board members, who were appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger

and other elected officials, represent research universities and the

biotechnology industry, both of which are expected to win millions of

dollars worth of grants.

 

The committee members discussed creating conflict of interest rules, one of

several hurdles the agency needs to overcome before it can send off its

first check. The committee also must design intellectual property guidelines

to ensure the state shares in any profits made from drugs created by

California's stem cell grants.

 

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Subcommittees were created Thursday to find outside scientists and others to

serve on powerful " working groups " that will vet grant applications, deal

with laboratory construction and establish standards for awarding grants.

 

Critics complained the committee was violating the state's open meeting law

Thursday because little information about the agenda was provided before the

meeting began.

 

California Deputy Attorney General Ted Prim, who advised the committee on

open meetings laws Thursday, said he was satisfied the meeting was legal.

 

Other critics, such as Marcy Darnovsky of the Center for Genetics and

Society in Oakland, complained that the so-called working groups are

explicitly exempt from the state's open meeting laws and can conduct all

business behind closed doors.

 

" I think that is particularly dangerous and ill-advised, " Darnovsky said.

 

Klein acknowledged that detailed information could have been made available

sooner, but said that the delay was because the agency had no staff.

 

" It is in the birth stage, " Klein said. " We appreciate the patience and

understanding of this process. "

 

Klein said the agency would begin posting its agenda and related information

on its newly launched Web site, http://www.cirm.ca.gov .

 

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