Martial arts for osteoporosis

21st April 2010 - Falling over is a big concern for people with osteoporosis; now researchers in The Netherlands say martial arts techniques could help reduce the risk of fractures.

Around three million people in the UK have osteoporosis. There are over 230,000 fractures every year as a result of the condition.

Martial arts could help osteoporosis sufferers fall more safely, according to the study published in the open access journal BMC Research Notes.

Measuring the impact

The researchers from the Sint Maartenskliniek in Nijmegen wanted to test their theory without putting older people with osteoporosis at risk. Instead, they studied the effects of falling for six healthy people aged 23-44 who were given special training.

Researcher Brenda Groen says in a news release, “For obvious safety reasons, this could not be directly assessed using persons with osteoporosis. Therefore, we measured the hip impact forces during the martial arts fall exercises in a group of young adults.

“Based on our results, however, we believe that fall training would be safe for persons with osteoporosis if they wear hip protectors during the training, perform fall exercises on a thick mattress, and avoid forward fall exercises from a standing position.”

A force platform was used to measure the impact of each fall. Sensors captured hip impact forces and kinetic measurements.

This was compared against data about the force someone with osteoporosis can withstand before bones start to break.

Falling safely

The volunteers were taught how to make a better landing by turning a fall into a rolling movement, bending and twisting the trunk and neck.

Groen says, “Since martial arts techniques reduce hip impact forces and can be learned by older persons, martial arts fall training may prevent hip fractures among persons with osteoporosis”.

The research is at an early stage, and it is not advisable for anyone with osteoporosis to start copying scenes from Bruce Lee films or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon before more work is carried out.

The team suggests that training could be given while patients wore special hip protectors and fell onto judo mats.

There’s also the problem of falls being unexpected, rather than predictable while wearing safety gear next to a soft mat. The researchers think that the slower reaction times of an older person might be balanced by the extra caution they use in daily life.

Novel approach

An osteoporosis charity has given the research a cautious welcome.

“It’s great to see new, novel approaches to fall prevention and we welcome more research in this area to help prevent unnecessary broken bones,” Juliette Brown from the National Osteoporosis Society told us by email. “However, as the research has not assessed the safe-fall impact on those with osteoporosis, it seems difficult to translate the research into real benefits.

“More work needs to be done to identify any risk before these measures could be recommended.”