JIGGLING FAT AWAY: REPORT #1499
TWO COMMON PROBLEMS: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 60 million adults, or 30 percent of the adult population, are now obese. According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, the bone disease osteoporosis is a major public threat for an estimated 44 million Americans, or 55 percent of people 50 years of age and older. Researchers around the world are working to understand the cause of these two problems and come up with a solution for the millions of people who suffer.
A VIBRATING PLATE: Clinton Rubin, Ph.D., and colleagues at Stony Brook University conducted a study to investigate the effect vibration has on fat and bone cells. They subjected mice to low-level vibrations for 15 minutes a day for 15 weeks. The researchers found the mice formed more bone mass and less fat.
THE FAT LINK: At the end of the study, the mice had nearly 30 percent less fat in their torsos than control animals. In addition, levels of fatty compounds linked to type 2 diabetes, such as triglycerides and free fatty acids, were reduced by 43 percent and 39 percent in the livers of the vibrating mice. Rubin was quoted as saying, “These low-magnitude mechanical signals appear to do something remarkable and that is inhibit the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells into fat cells.” These types of stem cells turn into either fat, bone or muscle cells. To tolerate the jiggling vibrations, Rubin believes the cells turn to bone. “The funny connection between bone and fat is they all come from the same cell,” says Rubin. “So, it’s a different way of thinking about why we become obese.”
THE BONE CORRELATION: The vibrating platform also showed promise for humans. Postmenopausal women who stood on the vibrating plate maintained their bone mass for one year, while those who didn’t lost about 3 percent. In another study, young women with osteopenia built up both bone and muscle by 3 percent and 4 percent respectively after 10 minutes per day for one year when compared to controls who showed no change in bone or muscle. Also, kids with disabling conditions such as cerebral palsy showed improvements when subjected to the low-level vibrations.
DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME! Researchers hope the vibrations may one day be a simple way to fight both osteoporosis and obesity, but Rubin warns that high-level vibrations can be extremely dangerous, so people should stay away from machines and devices that vibrate heavily.
For More Information, Contact:
Nubia Andrade
Department of Biomedical Engineering
State University of New York
Stony Brook, NY
(631) 632-2302
nandrade@notes.cc.sunysb.edu
