Got osteoporosis? It is a question that swimmers have to answer more than other people in general, and other athletes in particular.
An active lifestyle is essential to healthy bone development. A regimen of weight-bearing exercises such as jogging and weight training develops strong bones. However, studies have shown that swimmers have lower bone density than athletes who engage in weight-bearing exercises.
Thanks to The U of M Y.a.h.o.o. Project, the “most comprehensive” study of bone development in swimmers is being conducted.
“We want to determine whether or not swimmers are an at-risk group for osteoporosis,” said project coordinator Chris Vukadinovich. “This is one of the largest longitudinal studies ever done on swimmers.”
According to Y.A.H.O.O., or Young and Adolescent Healthy Osteo Outcomes, childhood and adolescence is the most crucial time for healthy bone development.
According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, osteoporosis is a disease that causes bones to become fragile and more likely to break. Women are four times more likely to develop the disease than men, but men are still at risk.
According to Y.A.H.O.O., a balanced diet rich in calcium and vitamin D can help children take the bite out of osteoporosis. Calcium is an important part of prevention because it is needed for the heart, muscles and nerves to function properly, while the vitamin D is necessary for the absorption of the calcium. A healthy lifestyle including plenty of exercise, especially weight-bearing exercise such as walking, dancing, jogging, stair-climbing and hiking, can slow or halt the development of osteoporosis. The Foundation also recommends not smoking or drinking in excess.
The organization is looking for 8- to 18-year-old candidates to help conduct the study. These people should not have been active in a competitive sport like soccer or basketball, but could swim competitively.
Y.A.H.O.O will conduct the DEXA, or Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry, test on participants. This test is an x-ray like test that takes about 10 minutes to conduct and measure body composition. Body composition is the thickness of bones, fat mass and muscle mass. According to Spine-Health.com, the DEXA is used specifically to assess a patient’s risk of fracture by detecting osteoporosis of the vertebral bodies.
The people involved in conducting this study include Ken Ward, Ph.D., the principle investigator; Kami Mays, a third-year doctoral student in Behavioral Medicine at the University of Memphis; and Anna Corcoran, a dietetics major at The U of M.
