Medical Hydrology and Balneology: Environmental Aspects

Which is better for health promotion activity in
a forest, Nordic walking or normal walking?
Ohtsuka Y (1) , Yue L (1)
(1) Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
yoshicat@med.hokudai.ac.jp
Introduction and Objectives
In Japan, exercise therapy is believed to be one of the essentials for balneotherapy.
Since hot spring areas usually have forest environments, walking in a forest is
recommended for patients and visitors. It has been reported that walking in forest
environments significantly enhances human immune function, reduces the levels of
stress hormones such as urinary adrenaline and noradrenaline, and increases the
score for vigor and decreased the scores for anxiety, depression, fatigue, confusion
and anger on the Profile of Mood States (POMS) test. On the other hand, Nordic
walking (walking with poles) activity in obese women allows an increase in exercise
intensity and adherence to a training program without increasing the perception
of effort leading to enhanced aerobic capacity compared with normal walking,
which means Nordic walking is more preferable than normal walking for obese
women. Therefore, we hypothesize that performing Nordic walking in a forest has
more beneficial effects than those by normal walking.
Materials and Methods
Twelve university students (7males and 5 females, 22-26 years old) participated
in the present study. They walked in a forest for 30 min, twice a week, ten times
with or without poles. Changes in mental conditions were determined by Mood
Check List-Short Form (MCL-S.1). Peripheral blood circulation was analyzed by
accelerated photoplethysmography (APG).
Results
The pleasant sensation increased significantly (p