"That, of course, is really exciting," Snow said. "These kinds of results from an exercise routine haven't been achieved before and they contradict what the medical community has been saying for years. One important aspect of the study is its longevity. When we checked these women after nine months, the results for bone mass weren't significant.
"After five years, though, the improvement was significant," she added. "Exercise was as good or better than either estrogen or Fosamax for preventing bone loss."
Snow, who is emerging as a leading national authority on the effects of exercise on osteoporosis, has conducted several studies that show the benefits of weight-bearing exercise on bone density in children and younger adults.
No previous studies, however, have extended such benefits to postmenopausal women after this length of time.
In the OSU study, a group of women with an average age of 66 years at the start of the study participated in an exercise program for five years. The program included three sessions a week, which featured a series of "resistance" exercises wearing vests weighted with one to 10 pounds, including squats, lunges, stepping up and down, and getting in and out of a chair.
In addition, they would jump - without weighted vests - about 50 times a day, three days a week. "The key," Snow said, "is to jump comfortably in the air - probably no more than four or five inches - and land flat-footed to distribute the force. The subjects had to have sufficient knee, ankle and hip strength and stability provided by the weighted vest resistance exercise before we would allow them to participate, but no one had any problems."
The results were noticeable to the participants even before they were evaluated.
Barbara Black, a Corvalli
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Contact: Christine Snow
christine.snow@orst.edu
541-737-6788
Oregon State University
30-Apr-2000