NEW YORK: Hipbone fractures can be avoided in old age if one uses the right kind of exercises, according to a new research. Exercise that targets the right set of muscles and the femur bone would be effective rather than simple walking.
The study was conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Cambridge. Their computerized study of the hipbones revealed that a certain set of exercises could reduce or limit the steep rise in hip fracture cases. It is a commonly established medical fact that as people grow older the bone mass grows thinner and causes diseases such as osteoporosis.
The scientists found that the “cortical” (outer layer) of the neck of femur bone depletes with advancing age; the thinning makes it more prone to fractures.
The British scientists had collected the femur samples of 77 adults aged between 20 and 95 years, who had died suddenly of causes other than any bone-related disease or condition. The CT scans of these samples confirmed progressive thinning of the cortical layer with aging. More precisely, the neck of the bone – the part that connects the hip ball to the rest of the thighbone, was prone to thinning.
Bone mass in this area started reducing after the age of 60 years. Bone thickness in this area dropped by as much as 6.4 percent per decade and osteoporosis had nothing to do with this depletion, said the report.
The thinning affected the femur’s ability to absorb energy; thus it became prone to breaking. Thinning reduced the bone’s ability to buckle under weight, thus causing it to break. Walking does not condition or strengthen the upper femur, said a member of the research team.
One would require a different set of exercises for the hip joint. Exercises that flex the hip joint such as cycling, gymnastics and weights would involve extension of the upper femur under load and are therefore more effective in conditioning the femur.
The scientists said that such thinning was not observed among tree-dwelling apes because the action of climbing trees serves as an exercise that strengthens the hipbones.
Orthopedists said that while the report is worthwhile, the researchers considered only hipbone fractures. Breakage of the femoral neck accounts for only half of all cases of hip fractures. Additionally, the other problem was lack of knowledge about which exercise could be the right one for this part of the body. The people who design/develop exercises themselves would be unable to prescribe the right exercise for the hip bone.
The report was published in the July 9 issue of the journal The Lancet.
