Bone Density and Bone Metabolic Markers in Active Collegiate Athletes: Findings in Long-distance Runners, Judoists, and Swimmers

Abstract

We investigated the bone metabolic system status of 103 male and female volunteer collegiate athletes, who were actively pursuing one of three different sports: Long-distance running (LR); judo (JU); and swimming (SW). The following parameters were evaluated: total body bone mineral density (TMBD); bone-forming metabolic markers; serum procollagen type I C-peptide (PICP) levels; bone alkaline phosphatase (B-ALP) content; bone resorption markers, urinary pyridinoline (Pyd) and deoxypyridinoline (Dpd) levels. We found that the TBMD and urinary Dpd values in JU athletes were significantly higher (p < 0.001) than in athletes of the same sex in the other two groups. The urinary Pyd level in male JU athletes was also higher (p < 0.001) than that in the other two groups, but that in females JU athletes was only higher (p < 0.01) than that in female LR athletes. The PICP levels were similar to the TBMD values in all groups. No differences in bone density or in bone metabolic markers were seen in LR and SW athletes of the same sex. We thus conclude that differences in bone mineral density are in part due to the demands of the specific sport, and that they are reflected in bone metabolic markers. In addition, the status of bone metabolic turnover in male JU athletes in training may be hypermetabolic and as well as that of female JU athletes with regular menses cycles.

Contribution of vitamin D receptor genotypes to bone mineral density in young male athletes with different impact loading

“…Physical activity is the principal external regulator of bone mass but its influences on BMD rely on type of exercise as reported in previous cross-sectional researches (4,6,10,11,17). Our study found that TBMD of athletes engaging in weight-bearing sports was greater than non-athletic controls, and that of swimmers was slightly less than the controls after adjustment for weight.…”

Bone metabolism in elite male rowers: adaptation to volume-extended training

“…This suggests that a 6-month volume-extended heavy training period positively affected bone formation markers without altering the whole body bone mass and BMD in elite athletes. Bone mineral density in our athletes was higher compared to results obtained from different endurance athletes such as triathletes (Maimoun et al 2004a(Maimoun et al , 2004b, cyclists (Maimoun et al 2004a;Stewart and Hannan 2000), or swimmers (Maimoun et al 2004a;Matsumoto et al 1997) but similar to runners (Bennell et al 1997;Brahm et al 1997) at the specific skeleton sites that are loaded during training. This further supports the importance of impact activity on bone development.…”

fecto de dos programas de actividad física en el medio acuático con diferente impacto, sobre el índice de rigidez óseo y el nivel de actividad física en mujeres postmenopáusicas y osteopénicas de Toledo. (Effects of two aquatic physical activity programs with different impact, on stiffness index and physical activity level in postmenopausal and osteopenic women from Toledo).

“…Con respecto al programa de natación en la piscina profunda, hay diversidad de opiniones sobre si un programa de natación puede (Orwoll et al, 1989;Pinto et al, 2003;Taaffe et al, 1995;Tsukahara et al, 1994) o no (Courteix et al, 1998;Fehling et al, 1995;Heinrich et al, 1990;Matsumoto et al, 1997) mejorar el nivel de DMO. No se han encontrado estudios en los que evalúen el SI tras un programa de entrenamiento en piscina profunda como el que se ha hecho en este estudio.…”