Indoor Rowing and Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is a bone disease that leads to an increased risk of fracture. In osteoporosis the bone mineral density (BMD) is reduced, bone microarchitecture is disrupted, and the amount and variety of non-collagenous proteins in bone is altered. Osteoporosis is most common in women after menopause, when it is called postmenopausal osteoporosis, but may also develop in men, and may occur in anyone in the presence of particular hormonal disorders and other chronic diseases or as a result of medications, specifically glucocorticoids, when the disease is called steroid- or glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (SIOP or GIOP). Given its influence is the risk of fragility fracture, osteoporosis may significantly affect life expectancy and quality of life.
Osteoporosis can be prevented with lifestyle changes and sometimes medication. Lifestyle change includes preventing falls and exercise; medication includes calcium, vitamin D, bisphosphonates and several others. Fall-prevention advice includes exercise to tone deambulatory muscles, proprioception-improvement exercises; equilibrium therapies may be included. Exercise with its anabolic effect, may at the same time stop or reverse osteoporosis.
- An estimated 3 million people in the UK suffer from osteoporosis
- One in two women and one in five men will suffer a fracture after the age of 50
- The lifetime risk of fracture in women at age 50 years is greater than the risk of breast cancer or cardiovascular disease
- On the basis of current trends, hip fracture rates in the UK will increase from approximately 46,000 per year in 1985 to 117,000 per year in 2016
- Hip fractures cause more than 1150 premature deaths each month
- A woman who sustains one or more vertebral fractures will have a 4.4 fold higher mortality rate than a woman who has no vertebral fractures
Indoor rowing is deservedly regarded as a superb method of building cardiovascular fitness and all round muscular endurance, which is great news for anybody wishing to get and stay fit. However, as we become an increasingly ageing population, it's more important than ever that the exercise we do confers us with health as well as fitness benefits. The bad news is that modern Western societies are facing an unprecedented epidemic of osteoporosis, a bone disease that wreaks havoc in the lives of those it affects. The good news is that the latest research shows that indoor rowing could also be the perfect way to maintain bone health, contrary to previous thinking which held that weight-bearing exercise was the best way to combat osteoporosis.
The following article has been written by Andrew Hamilton and summarises the latest scientific thinking on the subject.
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Andrew Hamilton BSc MRSC ACSM is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the American College of Sports Medicine, a consultant to the fitness industry, and is the editor of the sports performance research newsletter, Peak Performance.