Vibration as Exercise might improve the bone strength of diabetics

Pete McCall, an exercise physiologist with the American Council on Exercise, says that benefits of whole-body vibration are "100% legit." Vibration platforms can be used for exercise warm-ups, cool-downs or for certain moves like squats, planks and Pilates poses. Whole-body vibration consists of a person (or, in the study's case, a mouse) sitting, standing or lying on a platform. Young, healthy mice, who were also included in the study, did not reap the same benefits from the whole-body vibration. "If you are able to exercise, we'd still recommend exercise as a first choice option," says McGee-Lawrence. (A 2009 study found that vibration platforms helped obese people lose body fat, but other metabolic benefits have been less studied in people.)



McGee-Lawrence said researchers are now trying to determine the mechanisms that underlie improved diabetes control in both exercise and whole-body vibration mice. There was also evidence that whole-body vibration might improve the bone strength of diabetics. "We know that some whole-body vibration ... seems to be good for the body, but too much can be a bad thing," she said. Investigators saw similar health benefits in the diabetic mice that ran on the treadmill and those exposed to whole-body vibration. While there was improvement in the biomarkers of diabetic WBV mice and treadmill mice, they never became as healthy as the normal animals.



It might sound like an infomercial, but whole-body vibration (WBV) in lieu of traditional exercise may be a real thing in the future. There was no significant change in the weight of the healthy mice in either the WBV or treadmill groups. Researchers from Augusta University studied both healthy and genetically obese or diabetic mice in a 12-week exercise program that included three groups of sedentary, treadmill walking and WBV. WBV and exercising on the treadmill were similarly beneficial for the obese and diabetic mice, helping the obese mice gain less weight than the sedentary group. Experts think WBV could be a good alternative to exercise, particularly for the morbidly obese.

collected by :Lucy William