Is cycling killing us- bones edition

[Bosie]

Further to Sigs recent post and discussion on cycling and health and the potential effects on the heart:

Todays crash reminded me of this article written by a physician friend of mine who recently suffered a serious fracture when he fell off his bike. Needless to say, he had some time to research the topic of Osteoporosis in cycling and this is what he came up with:

http://www.plasticsurgeoncapetown.com/c ... -bones.php

Its an interesting idea and worth more research.

[Paula]

This is a perfect segue, BOOTCAMP.

We ran bootcamp last year and it was AWESOME. We are going to be doing it again this year. Think of your bones and how they/you need it!

Stay tuned on this channel…. more to come…

a november start date….

[Alan]

I've followed research on osteoporosis for over two decades and, as I asserted in my last book, "Is there anything about this condition that isn't controversial?" I wasn't being rhetorical as everything about osteoporosis is controversial, and a number of the suggestions made in the article posted by Craig were, quite frankly, absurd. I won't go into them, but suffice to say, broken bones in healthy people are almost always caused by trauma, i.e.: falling off your bike --or your walker, not from just having 'porous bones'.

When you hear about people who break bones in freak accidents (i.e.: Michelle recently) you know a bone density test, a diagnosis of osteoporosis and a drug regime will usually follow, a chain of events designed by the drug industry. As for the link between cycling and osteoporosis, if you want to know whether a phenomenon exists, you need to look at the totality of the available research, what is known as a systematic review. Here are two that relate to osteoporosis and cycling.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3230645/

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/10/168

To the "what do you really think, Alan?" question: Keep riding and don't worry about your bones. Worrying is bad for your health.

[Bosie]

For what its worth Alan, you might be surprised to know that I completely agree with you with regard to the "treatments" of Osteoporosis. I think the Bisphosphonates, Calcium supplements etc. have very sketchy evidence for them but strongly marketed by the drug industry.

Thats not to say everything is false.

I do think there is probably some truth to the theory (with some evidence) that non weight bearing exercise aids a decrease in bone density.

Anecdotally I have now seen 3 middle aged Male cyclists with severe femur fractures from injuries that shouldnt normally cause these kinds of injuries. Not evidence, but interesting.

[Mich]

Wait a sec - who are you calling a "freak"????

[Alan]

Craig, you're right, there is likely something there about moderate bone loss and cycling, it's just doesn't seem that the systematic evidence is that strong. Certainly in my opinion not strong enough to stop doing it. As for Michelle's comment: EEK, now I do fear a bone break. My own...

[Bosie]

I suspect one should probably run once a week, or something like that...
But as I hate running, and bike so I dont have to run, its unlikely to happen for me

[wonger]

Wait a sec - who are you calling a "freak"????

Hey Freak, welcome to the forum. Only took what...three years?

[sailor]

Not killing us, making us live longer...
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34498871