Do my bones look fat to you?

Amazing new research in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research has shown that people who are overweight or obese can get more bone-building benefits than their lean friends.

What does that mean?

Your bones store fat. Your bones and bone marrow are not stable and unchanging, they are active. They make blood cells, immune cells and can make cancer cells. Bone marrow also makes fat cells. Higher concentrations of bone marrow fat increases the risk of fractures and other bone disorders.

If you have a higher concentration of bone marrow fat then it is more likely you will also have lower bone density.

Being overfat is bad for your bones. Being overfat increases fat deposits in your bones, just like it increases abdominal fat.

The good news?

Exercise reduces the fat stored in bone. Exercise also increases bone cells to make more bone cells and less fat cells. Researchers believe, but haven’t proven, that exercise causes the fat cell to make more bone from the fat in bone marrow.

Even better news. You can reverse these changes.

If you are overweight and start exercising the benefits could be far greater than your lean exercise buddies. When the researchers studied mice, the lean mice showed no difference in fat cells in bone marrow while the obese mice reduced their fat cells by 50% in 6 weeks with exercise. In 6 weeks the bone marrow in all the mice was identical and their bones were thicker and healthier. 

Don’t just take my word for it. Lead author Maya Styner, MD, a physician and assistant professor of endocrinology and metabolism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill says,

“One of the main clinical implications of this research is that exercise is not just good, but amazing for bone health.” 

Exercise is amazing.

There is no other way to get all the benefits, from the inside out, of this one thing you can do daily, for free, for fun and for your best health.

Change your mind, change your health,

Shayla