The Effect of Physical Activity on Bone Turnover in Young Adults

Abstract

Physical activity has been suggested as one of the determinants of bone turnover and to prevent the involutional age related bone loss. However, the degree to which physical exercise is necessary to induce changes in bone turnover and calciotropic hormones have been widely discussed (Williams et al., 1984; Cook et al., 1987; Smith et al., 1985). The aim of this study was to examine the rate of bone formation measured by osteocalcin in 56 healthy volunteers before and after 4 and 8 weeks of physical exercise (PE) and its dependence on various parameters of calcium and phosphate metabolism. The studied group consisting of 44 men and 12 women, mean age 24.8 and 24.3 years, respectively, performed a standardized physical training of 8 weeks. Mean serum osteocalcin levels were significantly (p less than 0.01) reduced after 4 weeks (men: 2.26 +/- 1.8 ng/ml; women: 0.94 +/- 1.6 ng/ml) compared to the values before PE (men: 4.01 +/- 2.18 ng/ml; women: 1.69 +/- 1.7 ng/ml) and returned to normal values after 8 weeks. Similarly, magnesium levels (0.82 mmol/l) decreased significantly (p less than 0.01) after 4 weeks of PE (0.79 mmol/l), returning to normal values after 8 weeks. Concomitantly, there was only a slight, but significant fall of serum calcium from 2.48 +/- 0.07 to 2.45 +/- 0.07 returning to initial values again. Furthermore, serum phosphate increased slightly in men from 1.01 mmol/l to 1.13 and 1.15 mmol/l after 4 and 8 weeks, respectively. In contrast, alkaline phosphatase and serum creatinine remained in the normal range.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Effect of Ultra-marathon (308 km) Race on Bone Metabolism and Cartilage Damage Biomarkers

“…On the other hand, Franck et al17 reported that weight-bearing exercise training done 2-3 times a week in young subjects led to a significant reduction in OC within 4 weeks, followed by recovery to the previous level in 8 weeks. It was suggested that such adaptation to exercise was due to an increase in PTH release and a decrease in OC production.…”

“…Frank et al17 reported that OC significantly decreased in 4 weeks followed by recovery to pre-exercise concentrations after 8 weeks of exercise intervention using pre-exercise, 4 week, and 8 week OC measurements. In addition, calcium decreased in 4 weeks and then stabilized at the pre-exercise concentration.…”

Impact of resistive exercise versus aerobic exercise on bone mineral density in post-menopausal women

“…Measurement of BMD is inadequate to detect acute changes in bone metabolism after physical activity because changes in bone mass usually occur at a slow rate. The skeletal response to exercise can be measured using blood markers to estimate the bone remodeling rate by comparing the resorption markers to formation markers [23]. Also, a study by Chien et al [24] demonstrated that a 24-week program of aerobic high-impact exercise resulted in significant improvements in BMD of the femoral neck in Chinese postmenopausal women.…”

Sports Training and Serum Osteocalcin in Young Athletes of Manipur

“…The relatively new development of assays for circulating biochemical markers of bone turnover now allowing us to gain greater mechanistic insight into the effects of factors like exercise and maturation on bone development. [11][12][13][14] Although the majority of newly synthesized osteocalcin is deposited into bone matrix, a small amount can be detected in blood, and it is this characteristic that has led to its current clinical use as a specific index of osteoblastic activity. It is the most abundant and most widely studied of the non-collagenous proteins in bone.…”