Recent studies show that the association between exercise and bone health in humans continues to ring true in current studies, Dr. Wendy Kohrt of the Division of Geriatrics at University of Colorado Denver said.

“Physical activity [is] inversely associated with fracture risk,” Kohrt said, referring to recent studies. “This was particularly true when we looked at fractures in the hip.”

The department of applied physiology and wellness, applied physiology and the sport management program hosted Dr. Kohrt for her lecture regarding bone health and physical activity in Fondren Science Wednesday night. Kohrt, who has been continuously funded by the NIH as a principal investigator since 1990, works at the University of Colorado Denver as part of the IMAGE research group.

In her lecture, she discussed the implications of exercise on one’s physical bone health, specifically with regards to hip fractures. She discussed factors such as the frequency and duration of the exercise.

Kohrt led the group through a number of studies and many recent statistics proving that generally the more active one is, the least likely he or she is to have decreased bone loss.

She said that a greater volume of physical activity is associated with a lower risk of fracture. But just how much is enough? What dose of exercise is necessary to prescribe to individuals to prevent hip fractures?

Kohrt said that according to recent studies, humans need about three to four hours per week of physical activity to reduce the risk of hip fractures, compared to 150 minutes of semi-rigorous weekly physical activity that is currently being recommended.

“Our current physical activity guidelines are probably not adequate for reducing hip fracture risk,” Kohrt said.

In addition to physical activity, Kohrt emphasized the importance of other factors in increasing bone density and bone mass, such as getting proper amounts of calcium in one’s body.

Her studies suggest that once someone loses a bone, it is very difficult to get it back. (People surely have their moms to thank for nagging them to drink milk for all those years.) But probably something mom did not tell you is that calcium intake before exercise helps prevent bone loss. Kohrt’s studies have also proven that by taking a calcium supplement an hour or so in advance helps increase bone density even more effectively than just simply exercising.

Kohrt explained that despite past studies, recent evidence suggests that physical activity is much more effective in increasing bone mass than simply popping a pill that achieves the same purpose. She explained that when a drug is put into one’s body, the drug will act on all regions of the skeleton since it does not know where the body needs the most bone mass.

“When we use exercise to load the skeleton, we can load it in a more structurally and functionally appropriate manner to target the regions of the skeleton that we need to target,” Kohrt said. “I think this suggests that exercise may be even more effective than all the drugs we have out there that can prevent hip fracture and probably other fractures.”