Everyday physical activity fails to prevent menopausal bone loss

According to a recent study at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, the impacts of everyday physical activity do not attenuate the accelerated hormonal bone loss that occurs during menopause. Effective bone-loading impacts are rare in everyday life. Future research should explore whether more targeted exercise can slow menopausal bone loss. The study suggests that impacts accumulated during everyday life are not sufficient to slow hormonal bone loss during menopause.

A follow-up study conducted at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, examined the relationship between everyday bone loading and changes in bone strength at the femoral neck, femoral shaft, and tibial shaft in women of menopausal age.

Hormonal changes during menopause cause accelerated bone weakening, increasing the risk of osteoporosis and fractures. Previous studies have shown that bone-loading exercise can slow age-related bone weakening. However, it is not yet known whether exercise can slow hormonal bone loss during menopause, says researcher Tuuli Suominen.

Physical activity, especially weight-bearing, impact-loading exercises, and high-intensity strength training, can positively affect bone health. Even short bursts of relatively high-intensity activity can be beneficial for bone health.

In this study, nearly 200 women in the perimenopausal stage were followed until they reached postmenopause. Habitual bone loading was determined by measuring the number and intensity of individual impacts in everyday life.

"We observed that high-intensity impacts were rare in everyday life," says researcher Tuuli Suominen.

Bone properties at the femoral neck, femoral shaft, and tibial shaft weakened during the follow-up period. Although the number of moderate and high-intensity impacts was positively associated with the strength at femoral and tibial shafts, these impacts were not associated with the bone changes observed during menopause. This suggests that impacts accumulated during everyday life are not sufficient to slow hormonal bone loss during menopause.

More research is needed on this topic.

"Future studies should also investigate whether more targeted bone-loading exercise can slow the accelerated bone weakening during menopause", says Suominen.

The study is part of the ERMA study carried out by the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences and Gerontology Research Centre at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, in 2015 to 2018. This sub-study involved 189 perimenopausal women from Jyväskylä, aged 47 to 55 at the start of the study. The participants were followed until they became postmenopausal, with an average follow-up period of 15 months. Menopausal stages were determined based on blood hormone levels and menstrual diaries. The number and intensity of daily bone-loading impacts were measured with accelerometers. Bone mineral density at the narrowest point of the femoral neck was measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Additionally, 61 women participated in computed tomography measurements to determine the bone mineral density, structural properties, and estimated strength of the femoral and tibial shafts.

The ERMA study is led by Associate Professor Eija Laakkonen and funded by the Academy of Finland.