부산대학교 도서관

Abstract Exercise is a well-established tool for cardiovascular risk reduction. Particularly eccentric exercise, which essentially means walking downwards could favour more people becoming physically active. With the present controlled study, we tested the hypothesis that eccentric exercise can improve insulin sensitivity, triglyceride handling, body mass index, glucose tolerance and inflammation. We allocated 127 healthy sedentary individuals to one of two groups: (i) an active group of 102 individuals walking downwards a predefined route three to five times per week over two months, covering a difference in altitude of 540 m; for the upward route a cable car was used, for which adherence was recorded electronically and (ii) a matched control group of 25 individuals who stayed sedentary. Fasting and postprandial metabolic profiles were obtained at baseline and after two months. Compared to baseline, eccentric exercise significantly improved HOMA insulin resistance (1.94 ± 1.65 vs. 1.71 ± 1.36 (µU−1 ml) × ((mmol/l)−122.5); p = 0.038) and resulted in a decrease in fasting glucose (97 ± 15 vs. 94 ± 9 mg dl−1; p = 0.025) and glucose tolerance (238 ± 50 vs. 217 ± 47 mg dl−1 h−1; p