Do you like to exercise? If you are approaching menopause it might be wise to get on a new program. It seems that a minimum of two hours of physical activity per week cam help pre-menopausal women maintain healthy bones,
The finding is based on the fact that even small amounts of
exercise seem to have on stopping the production of a certain type of protein that diminiahes bone growth, while at the same time increases the activity of
another protein that promotes bone growth
The study will appear in the October issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
"Exercise is good for bone health and results in lowering
sclerostin -- a known inhibitor of bone formation -- and enhancing IGF-1
levels, a positive effector on bone health," study author
Mohammed-Salleh Ardawi, a professor at the Center of Excellence for
Osteoporosis Research and the faculty of medicine at King Abdulaziz
University in Saudi Arabia, said in a journal news release.
The authors explain that sclerostin, a hormone, works by migrating to
bone surfaces, where it slows bone cell creation. IGF-1 is shorthand
for insulin-like growth factor-1, a hormone that promotes growth.
For this finding, researchers tracked 120 pre-menopausal women for an
eight-week period. About half of the women were engaged in a supervised
physical-activity routine, while the other half were not.
Women who had participated in more than two hours of activity per
week were found to have "significantly" lower sclerostin levels and
higher IGF-1 levels.
"Physical-activity training is conceptually simple and inexpensive,
and can serve practical purposes including reducing the risk of low bone
mass and osteoporosis, and, consequently, fractures," Ardawi said. "Our
study found that even minor changes in physical activity were
associated with clear effects on serum levels of sclerostin, IGF-1 and
bone-turnover markers."
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