Lift weights to build bones

Chris Richards Arizona Daily Wildcat Barbara Richards works on her lat pulldowns Monday at the UMC Health and Wellness Center. Richards is part of a two-year program to gauge the effects of strength training and weight bearing exercises on osteoporosis and bone density in post-menopausal women.

She's testing her strength to find out how much weight she can press with her arms and legs.

This is her first personal B.E.S.T. test.

This is also Preston's first week at the University Medical Center's Bone Estrogen Strength Training study, and she has got months of weight lifting and weight-bearing exercises, such as hopping, jumping and running, ahead of her.

The regimen is supposed to help build Preston's bone mass and ward off osteoporosis, said Timothy Lohman, the study's principal investigator.

At least he hopes so - that's his hypothesis.

"The main question is: can exercise prevent the loss of bone mineral in post-menopausal women," explained Lohman, also a University of Arizona physiology professor.

Osteoporosis is one of the greatest health problems women face, Lohman said, with an estimated 20 million American women who either have or are at-risk for the brittle bone disease.

Losing bone minerals puts women at risk for osteoporosis, which makes for fragile bones and increases the risk of breaks and fractures - about 1.5 million across the nation each year, Lohman said. These fractures can prove deadly - complications from hip fractures kill as many women as breast and ovarian cancers combined each year.

Women who have suffered an osteoporosis-related fracture have a 12 to 20 percent greater death rate than other women their age, he added.

Lohman said he thinks exercise and hormone replacement therapy might help.

Preston said she's just hoping to slow the effects of aging and menopause.

"I was always really fit," she explained, adding, "Once I hit menopause, though, everything changed. It was so scary."

She described taking a shower one day only to find all the hair on her body had fallen off.

"And I got heavy and the cellulite was just fighting to get on my legs. It was a real shock," she recalled.

Lohman's preliminary findings suggest that exercise does indeed increase bone mass and strength. The study has looked at 188 women already and that data, and information from a study of women in their 30s, seems to show that conscientious exercise can increase bone mass 1 to 3 percent after five months, Lohman said. The combination of hormone replacement therapy and exercise seems even more effective in bringing up bone mass in post-menopausal women, Lohman said.

After time, the increase in bone mass levels off, but the higher bone density can be maintained with continued exercise, arming the women against the onset of osteoporosis, Lohman said.

Still, the study needs 400 more non-smoking women between the ages of 45 and 65, said Kathy Saboda, the study's recruiter.

Not all women participate in the exercise regimen, she added. Some may be separated into a control group to continue their normal routine. All participants receive free body-fat analyses, fitness assessments, diet analyses and bone mineral density scans.

Most participants hope to be placed in the exercise group, Preston said.

"It's an opportunity to get out and meet a lot of people. You are also doing something for yourself and feel good about yourself," she said.

Those placed in the control group have the option of joining the exercisers after a year to begin building themselves up.

"We see really impressive gains," said trainer Wendy Eagle.

Barbara Richards, 61, and Mary Jo Horten, 58, agreed. Horten is currently leg pressing 250 pounds and Horten is pressing 260 pounds.

"It's pretty easy," Horten said.

She's a third year study veteran. That means she gets to set her own goals and push herself, she said.

And she is.

As UB40 comes on singing "Red, Red Wine," Horten fiddles with the weights on the leg press.

"I'm shooting for 300 pounds," she confides.

Call 621-8523 for further information.