« ASPEN PANEL: Obama's America and the World | Main | The Idea of Picnics »
Is cycling bad for the bones? A number of intriguing studies published in the past 18 months, including Smathers', have raised that possibility -- an issue that has special resonance now, with this weekend's start of the 2009 Tour de France. Certainly, the toll of broken bones among top-level racers is high. Famously, Lance Armstrong broke his collarbone this year, while Christian Vande Velde, another of America's premier Tour hopes, fractured six bones, including three in his spine, during a crash at the Giro d'Italia in May.
Of course, slamming into the pavement at 40 miles per hour can be expected to break anyone's bones. But Smathers' research suggests that other factors may be at work as well. "If you have low bone mineral mass, you can wind up with a much more serious break from a crash" than if your bones are thicker, he points out.
In his study, the bone density of 32 male, competitive bike riders, most in their late 20s and early 30s, was compared to that of age-matched controls, men who were active but not competitive athletes. Bone scans showed that almost all of the cyclists had significantly less bone density in the spine than the control group. Some of the racers, young men in their 20s, had osteopenia in their spines, a medical condition only one step below full-blown osteoporosis. "To find guys in their twenties with osteopenia was surprising and pretty disturbing," Smathers says.
Post a comment