Daily HealthBeat Tip - July 02, 2007

Bad to the bone

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

When people lift weights, they strain their bones, which then get stronger – which is a good thing. Now, obese people have extra weight on their bones all the time. Is this a good thing?

As it turns out, not really. Researcher Hong-Wen Deng of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine looked at it, in data on almost 7,000 people. His study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Deng says obese people did have a bit more strength in their bones. But the strength of their bones proportional to their size was less than the proportional strength of the bones of healthy-weight people.

Deng’s conclusion:

``Increasing obesity is bad for the bone mass. So we need to reduce fat mass, and that can be achieved by exercise.’’ (8 seconds)

Learn more at hhs.gov.

Last revised: July, 02 2007