Low Buzz May Give Mice Better Bones and Less Fat
Clinton T. Rubin knows full well that his recent results are surprising � that no one has been more taken aback than he. And he cautions that it is far too soon to leap to conclusions about humans. But still, he says, what if ... ?
And no wonder, other scientists say. Dr. Rubin, director of the Center for Biotechnology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is reporting that in mice, a simple treatment that does not involve drugs appears to be directing cells to turn into bone instead of fat.
All he does is put mice on a platform that buzzes at such a low frequency that some people cannot even feel it. The mice stand there for 15 minutes a day, five days a week. Afterward, they have 27 percent less fat than mice that did not stand on the platform � and correspondingly more bone.
�I was the biggest skeptic in the world,� Dr. Rubin said. �And I sit here and say, �This can�t possibly be happening.� I feel like the credibility of my scientific career is sitting on a razor�s edge between �Wow, this is really cool,� and �These people are nuts.��
The responses to his work bear out that feeling. While some scientists are enthusiastic, others are skeptical.
Effects of vibration therapy on bone mineral density in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.
Quote:
BACKGROUND: Jaw osteonecrosis possibly associated with the administration of bisphosphonates is expected to be treated with a non-pharmacologic approach. This study aimed to determine whether noninvasive, mechanically mediated vibration would inhibit the decline in bone mineral density (BMD) that follows menopause, enhance the BMD of the lumbar and femoral neck, and reduce chronic back pain in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.
METHODS: A total of 116 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis participated in this study, and they were divided into groups A (66 patients) and B (50).
Group A received vibration treatment (Subjects vertically stand on the vibration platform, with a vibration frequency of 30 Hz, amplitude of 5 mm; they received the treatment five times per week, ten minutes each time and totally for six months),
whereas women of group B served as controls without any treatment.
L2 - 4 BMD, bilateral femoral neck BMD, and body mass index (BMI) were recorded before the treatment or at the third and sixth months of the treatment respectively.
After the ending of the treatment, the change of BMD in each group was compared and analyzed. Chronic back pain was evaluated by visual analogue scale (VAS) at baseline and the third and sixth months of the treatment.
RESULTS: Of the 116 women, 94 including 51 women from group A ((61.23 +/- 8.20) years) and 43 women from group B ((63.73 +/- 5.45) years), completed the study. There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics including age, BMI, menopausal years, lumbar BMD, femoral neck BMD, and VAS between the two groups.
The lumbar BMD of the 51 women in group A increased by 1.3% (P = 0.034) after vibration treatment for 3 months and by 4.3% at the sixth month (P = 0.000).
The lumbar BMD in group B was decreased at the third month, but there was not statistical significance (P > 0.05). At the sixth month, it was decreased by 1.9% (P < 0.05).
The femoral neck BMD of the 51 women in group A was slightly increased after vibration treatment for 3 months, but without statistical significance (P > 0.05). At the sixth month, the BMD was increased by 3.2% (P < 0.05).
In group B, the BMD was not decreased significantly (P = 0.185) at the third month, but decreased significantly at the sixth month (1.7%) (P < 0.05) compared with the baseline.
Chronic back pain (VAS) reduced more significantly in group A at the third and the sixth months (P < 0.05) after vibration therapy in comparison with the baseline.
The BMI was not significantly changed in the two groups during the period of follow-up.
CONCLUSIONS: Vibration therapy appears to be useful in reducing chronic back pain and increasing the femoral neck and lumbar BMD in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis.
Obesity, a global pandemic that debilitates millions of people and
burdens society with tens of billions of dollars in health care costs,
is deterred by exercise. Although it is presumed that the more
strenuous a physical challenge the more effective it will be in the
suppression of adiposity, here it is shown that 15 weeks of brief,
daily exposure to high-frequency mechanical signals, induced at a
magnitude well below that which would arise during walking,
inhibited adipogenesis by 27% in C57BL/6J mice. The mechanical
signal also reduced key risk factors in the onset of type II diabetes,
nonesterified free fatty acid and triglyceride content in the liver, by
43% and 39%, respectively. Over 9 weeks, these same signals
suppressed fat production by 22% in the C3H.B6�6T congenic
mouse strain that exhibits accelerated age-related changes in body
composition. In an effort to understand the means by which fat
production was inhibited, irradiated mice receiving bone marrow
transplants from heterozygous GFP mice revealed that 6 weeks of
these low-magnitude mechanical signals reduced the commitment
of mesenchymal stem cell differentiation into adipocytes by 19%,
indicating that formation of adipose tissue in these models was
deterred by a marked reduction in stem cell adipogenesis. Translated
to the human, this may represent the basis for the nonpharmacologic
prevention of obesity and its sequelae, achieved through
developmental, rather than metabolic, pathways.
Quote:
...For 15 weeks,
5 days per week, LMMS mice were subjected to 15 min of a 90-Hz,
0.2-g peak acceleration (1.0 g = Earth�s gravitational field, or 9.8
ms2), induced by vertical whole-body vibration via a closed-loop
feedback controlled, oscillating platform (modified from Juvent
Medical, Inc., Somerset, NJ) (38). A sinusoidal vibration at this
magnitude and frequency causes a displacement of 12 m and is
barely perceptible to human touch. CTR animals were placed on an
inactive platform each day.
...
Forget the fancy equipment. Just put a contented purring cat on your lap.
Quote:
Could the purr in any way link to the fact that vibrational stimulation not only relieves suffering in 82% of persons suffering from acute and chronic pain but also generates new tissue growth, augments wound tissue strength, improves local circulation and oxygenation, reduces swelling and/or inhibits bacterial growth?
Buzzz (low vibration) might build bone and lose fat
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