Say Finland and the first things that come to mind are reindeers or mobile
phones. But Finland
is also one of the world’s centers for advanced medical research.
Finnish scientists recently conducted a 20-week experiment involving 110
healthy but sedentary men in their late 40s and early 60s to find out if golf
promotes health and fitness. During the trial, half the men played 18 holes of
golf two to three times a week, always walking the course. The other half
didn’t play golf but continued their normal routines like gardening and household
chores. All the men went through a series of tests before and after the
experiment.
In just that short period, the golfers in the study pulled ahead of the
non-golfers. The golfers lost weight, reduced waist and abdominal fat, improved
their aerobic exercise capacity as measured by treadmill tests, increased
muscular strength as measured by back extension, and boosted their good
cholesterol levels.
The golfers also showed a tendency towards reduced blood pressure, but these
changes, unlike the others, did not meet tough statistical standards for
validity.
And Safe for Your Heart
Golf may be good for healthy men, but is it safe for men with bad hearts? A
group of doctors from Germany,
in another study, gave reassuring results. They carefully monitored 20 men with
heart disease during and after a round of competitive golf.
The physical stress of pulling their clubs over 18 hilly holes and the
mental stress of competition boosted the players’ heart rates to an average of
105 beats per minute, which is very close to the aerobic target of 109 for
65-year old men. The physical and mental strain of golf raised their blood
pressures and adrenaline levels, but was easy on the heart. All those who
participated wore heart monitors, and none developed abnormal heart rhythms or
cardiac symptoms.