My choice #3: Health Benefits of Hiking

While researching for my paper, I came across an article on the health benefits of hiking. Some of the listed benefits actually surprised me. This article claims that hiking and walking alike assist to decrease or even reverse the negative effects of osteoporosis by somehow simultaneously increasing bone density and slowing down the rate of calcium loss. More interestingly, the article cited that women who walked just one hour a day for 3 days a week increased bone density by a whopping 6% in just 9 months. I really was not expecting anything involving bone density or arthritis to be affected by just walking. The only other benefit I was not expecting to see on this list was the relief of anxiety. Apparently, walking releases adrenaline that is built up in the body of anxious people. Naturally, exercise improves mood, but I hadn't really thought that just walking could do so much.