Fitness News – Osteogenic Loading Exercise Can Increase Bone Density (Osteoporosis)

With over 78 million Baby Boomers in America between the ages of 48 and 66 years of age in 2011 it’s not surprising that bone health has become a topic of interest in the media.  With news stories exposing the shocking statistics about osteoporosis, multivitamin companies introducing “bone health formulas” and advertisements for osteoporosis treatments featuring Sally Field in the pages of women’s lifestyle magazines on every newsstand it’s understandable that increasingly more people are concerned with bone health and are looking for answers.

Unfortunately, there are few non-pharmaceutical treatment options for people who have been diagnosed with osteoporosis (or osteopenia) that are effective at helping people to stop the loss of bone mass.  An exciting new book, “Osteogenic Loading: A New Modality to Facilitate Bone Density Development”, provides some insight to new protocols to help increase bone density, muscle density and increase metabolism.  It poses the question, “Can a new type of exercise actually reverse the effects of osteoporosis and increase bone density?”.  Based on the scientific information outlined in this book … the answer is “YES!”.

About Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is a disease of the skeletal system characterized by low bone mass and deterioration of bone tissue.  Osteoporosis leads to an increased risk of bone fractures (typically in the wrist, hip and spine). In other words, osteoporosis is a condition that is like driving a sports car without a seatbelt or airbags.  You need to be careful at all times or the results could be devastating.  For example, in the U.S. 4.5 million women and 800,000 men over the age of 50 are diagnosed with osteoporosis.  10 percent of women and 2 percent of men diagnosed will die from the condition, resulting from a fracture that leads to death (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention).

Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions for Osteoporosis

Because osteoporosis is difficult to reverse, preventing bone loss is considered the key to treatment.  This includes:

• Calcium (and vitamin D)
• Nutrition and diet
• Regular exercise regimen

Pharmaceutical treatment therapies have been shown to effectively slow down bone loss.  These treatments include:

• Hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
• Biphosphonates
• Selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMS)
• Parathyroid hormone

Essentially, there have not been any non-pharmaceutical options to stop or reverse the loss of bone mass for patients diagnosed with osteoporosis (or osteopenia) … until now.  This is what is exciting about the information outlined in “Osteogenic Loading: A New Modality to Facilitate Bone Density Development”.  This book outlines decades of scientific research and the protocols to effectively stimulate increases in bone mass through osteogenic loading exercises.

What is Osteogenic Loading?

Osteogenic loading is the application of impact force loads on the body (equivalent to multiples of body weight) that produce the following adaptations to the body:

• Increase in bone density
• Increase in myofibril (muscle fiber) development
• Increase in neural activity (neural potentiation)

The book states, “To build both myofibril muscular development, and bone mass density, loads must be applied to the body that approach the loading levels of impact.  Current resistance technology is limited in the level of loading that can be safely applied to the human body.  A new patented technology has been introduced that allows for significantly greater loading of both muscular and bone tissue.”

The book outlines two key principles that were applied to develop the technology to provide the benefits of osteogenic loading:

1. Isolating optimal biomechanical ranges
2. Loading origin

Currently, traditional resistance training cannot produce the conditions in a safe or effective way to get the same physiological adaptations as osteogenic loading.  The loads required to irritate the bones and muscles of the body, that stimulate the changes to the tissues, require multiples of body weight (100’s or even 1,000’s of pounds of load), which is unrealistic and dangerous in a traditional gym environment.  The development of the bioDensity device (www.biodensity.com) has made this possible.

Osteogenic Loading Using bioDensity

The bioDensity device is an innovative technology designed to increase the body’s bone density and muscle fiber density by exposing them to impact forces in four different directions.  This type of exercise applies the required amount of stress on the bones and muscles that leads to adaptation (maintenance or an improvement in overall density).  Regular use of the bioDensity (5 to 10 minutes, one time per week) has been shown to improve the total structure of the body, the building blocks for effective and efficient movement for life.

Final Thoughts …

Osteoporosis is a condition that starts in adolescence.  The traditional medical community has provided limited solutions that are not appealing to those with bone health issues or who are at risk (i.e. pharmaceutical treatment therapies or bone loss prevention).  The introduction to this new information and research provides alternative solutions and ways for people to potentially “turn back the clock” on the damage that has been done over the years to the bones and muscles of the body and give them back the confidence to live their lives without fear of injury or debilitating pain.

In addition to those with bone health issues, this opens the doors to exciting new exercise and fitness alternatives for the 85% of people who are NOT members of the fitness club or who do not like to exercise (but know that it is important for good health and a better quality of life).  If osteogenic loading can produce effective results in a single 5 to 10 minute session, one time per week it would make sense that more people would consider engaging in physical activity more often.

For more information on osteoporosis and osteogenic loading visit the following websites to learn more:

• www.cdc.gov
• www.osteoporosisinstitute.org