Is cycling bad for your bones?
Is Bicycling Bad for Your Bones? - Well Blog - NYTimes.com
Early results suggest it is.
. . . 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.
Another recent study, this one published last year, had similar results. It followed competitive cyclists over the course of a race season in Colorado. The riders, aged 27 to 44, began with slightly below-average bone density. By the conclusion of the race season, they had lost a significant portion of their total, already-low bone mass in their hips, though not in their spines. At a three-month follow-up exam, however, they showed a small amount of bone recovery in the hips.
