Grant: Catalyst Grant: Bone Health

Physical activity is important for bone and joint health with implications for many people including military personnel, athletes, postmenopausal women, children, older adults, and patient populations such as individuals with osteoarthritis (OA) and patients with stroke. The optimal intensity, frequency, and duration of physical activity needed to benefit bone and joints while minimizing any harmful effects remains largely unknown. The skeleton and cartilage go through a cyclical process where they are continuously broken down and then built back up again - a process called turnover. Currently there is little information on the immediate effects of physical activity on bone and cartilage turnover, which is key to our understanding of how physical activity can benefit or harm bones and joints. Our primary goal is to evaluate how walking and dropping from low heights (1-2 X the height of a stair) effects bone and cartilage turnover up to 7.5 hours following activity. We will also examine the relationship between how bone turnover changes with how cartilage turnover changes immediately after each activity. The results from this unique research study will provide information that is directly relevant to our overall understanding of physical activity and bone and joint health.