The randomized, placebo-controlled study, published in the journal Osteoporosis International (2005, vol 16, no 12), investigated the effect of strength training exercise and calcium intake with change in bone mineral density in postmenopausal women. Researchers at the University of Arizona at Tucson administered daily either a progressive strength training exercise program or a control group to 167 sedentary, postmenopausal women, for 4 years. All of the women took 800 milligrams of calcium citrate per day.
The exercise participants completed two sets of six to eight strength training repetitions, three times a week. Fifty four percent of the women were on hormone therapy at the beginning of the study. Fifty five control subjects chose to cross over to the exercise group after one year. Bone mineral density tests were obtained from the participants at the beginning of the study and yearly thereafter.
The researchers found that calcium supplementation improved bone mineral density for women who were not using hormone therapy. The findings also showed that the exercise group experienced significant increases in bone mineral density.
"The significant, positive, association between bone mineral density change and exercise frequency supports the long-term usefulness of strength training exercise for the prevention of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women, especially hormone therapy users," the study authors write. "The positive relationship of calcium intake to change in bone mineral density among postmenopausal women not using hormone therapy has clinical implications in light of recent evidence of an increased health risk associated with hormone therapy."
Posted by Kristopher Foster on April 17, 2006 07:46 PM
