High-impact jumping just may be the latest thing to help those at risk of osteoporosis. Researchers from the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland have found that such training improved the quality of the patellar cartilage and physical function it also improved the biochemical composition of the patients’ cartilage.
Osteoporosis? Jump for the Health of It
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Eighty eligible postmenopausal women with knee pain on most days of the month were enrolled in the study. They were then randomly assigned into either a training group or a control group. The training group underwent a progressive high-impact exercise program three times a week for 12-months; the control group continued their normal level of physical activity.
“The breaking of the collagen network and increased free water in the articular cartilage is considered to represent the onset of the degenerative process of osteoarthritis. If those cartilage breaking changes can be hindered, stopped or even improved the quality of the cartilage via appropriate physical activity, it might slow down the disease progression, ” said doctoral student Jarmo Koli from the Department of Health Sciences in the February 18, 2015 news release.
The news release further indicated, “In addition, the 12-month training was very well tolerated; it did not induce knee pain or stiffness, and the general training compliance was high. The clinical significance of this study is, with postmenopausal women in mind, that despite of mild knee osteoarthritis, a person is allowed and even encouraged to progressively implement high-impact loading exercises to maintain and improve her health and functional ability.”
The study was conducted in cooperation with the Central Finland Central Hospital and the Department of Medical Technology, Institute of Biomedicine in University of Oulu in Finland.
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This is a fascinating development. In my practice we've seen similar outcomes with the revised protocol. The key differentiator seems to be patient selection criteria. Has anyone else noticed the correlation with BMI thresholds?
Great point. I'd push back slightly on the conclusion, the sample size in the cited study is too small to draw population-level inferences. That said, the directional signal is compelling and worth a larger RCT.
We implemented a similar approach last year. Early results are promising but we're still gathering 12-month follow-up data. Happy to share our protocol if anyone is interested.
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