Vibrating Machines Do Nada To Slow Bone Loss

Once upon a time, enterprising marketing people explained how whole body vibrating machines would help us improve coordination, posture, and, most importantly for post-menopausal women, bone density. It sounded good, especially when we learned that a similar mechanism was used by cosmonauts, the Russian correlative to astronauts. Yet now comes research from the University Health Network at Mount Sinai Hospital, the University of Toronto, and McMaster University, suggesting that the machines do nothing at all to slow bone loss. The Washington Post reports on the study, for which 202 women (average age 60) were randomly assigned to stand on a whole-body vibration (WBV) machine for 20 minutes every day, or not.  After one year, the Post reports, the study found no differences in the rate of bone loss between women who used the WBV machines and those who did not. Differences in vibration frequency also showed, well, nothing. What was different about the women who used the machines and those who didn’t? More women who used them reported foot pain or numbness, dizziness and nausea. Read more in the Washington Post.