Children and teens with abnormal development of the long bone between the pelvis and knee from playing high-intensity sports, such as soccer and basketball, are at greater risk for osteoarthritis of the hip, according to a new study.

Swiss researchers explained that deformities of the top of that bone — known as the femur — leads to reduced rotation and pain during movement among young competitive athletes. This may explain why athletes are more likely to develop osteoarthritis than more sedentary individuals, according to Dr. Klaus Siebenrock, from the University of Bern in Switzerland.

The researchers examined the physical condition and range of motion of 72 hips in 37 male professional basketball players and 76 hips in 38 control participants who had not participated in high-level sports.

The study showed that men and teens that had played in an elite basketball club since the age of 8 were more likely to have osteoarthritis of the hip than in those who did not take part in regular sports. The athletes, the researchers found, had femur deformities causing their thighbone to have abnormal contact with their hip socket.

As a result, they had reduced internal hip rotation and painful hip movements. The study’s authors noted these differences got worse during late adolescence.

Overall, the researchers found, athletes were 10 times more likely to have impaired hip function than those who did not play high-intensity sports.

A woman’s worry lines could make her clinician fret about her bone health, researchers said here. In a cross-sectional analysis, having more wrinkles was associated with having lower bone mineral density (BMD; P<0.01), Lubna Pal, MBBS, of Yale, and colleagues reported during a press briefing at The Endocrine Society meeting.

“For the older patient, her bigger concern is what is happening to her skin. The clinician’s concern is what is happening to her bones,” Pal said. “Our question was, can we fine-tune the patient concern to get a sense of the bone issues?”

Pal explained that there are many shared mechanisms in skin and bone health. For instance, collagen, which is more closely associated with skin health, is also important for bones.

Currently, dual x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scanning is the gold standard for monitoring osteoporosis risk, Pal said, adding that researchers are currently looking for cost-effective markers that will enhance risk detection, and reduce poor outcomes such as fractures.

So she and her colleagues looked at data from the Kronos Early Estrogen Prevention Study (KEEPS), which assessed the efficacy of hormone therapy among early menopausal women.

A total of 114 of those patients also participated in a skin ancillary study that assessed skin wrinkling and rigidity as well as BMD. Skin wrinkles were assessed at 11 sites on the face and neck using the Lemperle wrinkle scale, while skin rigidity was evaluated at the forehead and cheek using a durometer.

Each woman had her BMD assessed via DXA scan at the lumbar spine, hip, and total body.

The researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis of baseline data, and found that more skin wrinkling was associated with having lower bone density at the spine, femoral neck, and total body (P<0.01 for all).

Conversely, greater skin rigidity was tied to greater BMD at those locations (P<0.001).

Pal and colleagues also found that having more glabellar wrinkles on the forehead was related to lower bone density at the femoral neck (P=0.033), while increasing skin rigidity at the face and the forehead was tied to stronger bones at the hip and spine (P<0.001).

She called it a “tantalizing association,” but said the question remains as to whether the association has relevance over time. For instance, are women with deeper wrinkles losing BMD at a faster rate than those with smooth skin?, she said.

Similarly, it would be worth investigating if estrogen therapy can retard the progression of wrinkles, and decrease the pace of bone loss, she said.

Pal noted the study’s results could not be generalized because only 13% of the study population was classified as being in a minority group.

Press briefing moderator Judith Turgeon, PhD, of the University of California at San Francisco said that having such a simple screening tool would be a helpful option, especially as debate rages in Washington D.C., over reimbursement rates for preventive DXA scans.

She said if this screening tool proves viable, its cost effectiveness is especially appealing. “The cost of a fracture would far outweigh the cost of a screen like this,” she told MedPage Today

Vitamin D is extremely unique in the sense that it is perhaps the most studied nutrient of all time, yet the most underrated as well. Until recently, not much light has been shed on the powerful effects of vitamin D. But of course, as with anything else, there is also much fiction propagated regarding vitamin D and its effects. Vitamin D has been tied to preventing cancer, aiding in weight loss, fighting bone fractures, and much more.

Why then, are people so reluctant to experience its benefits? Vitamin D deficiency is so prevalent that there has actually been a resurgence of the rickets. With all the myths abound, the truth about vitamin D is hard to find. Find out what you need to know about vitamin D.

The Fundamentals of Vitamin D

• Vitamin D is produced by your skin in response to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight.

• Your body cannot create vitamin D behind glass, as the rays of sunlight cannot penetrate the glass. You will need to go outside or open the window to generate vitamin D.

• Sunscreens block your body’s ability to create vitamin D. Even the lower SPF sunscreens, such as SPF 8, hamper your body’s ability to generate vitamin D by 95%.

• It would require ten tall glasses of vitamin D fortified milk to reach the minimum daily levels of vitamin D into your system.

• Vitamin D3 can be purchased in supplement form, and is vastly superior to vitamin D2, which your body has trouble breaking down and absorbing.

• Most of us are deficient in vitamin D.

• Many reputable health experts recommend taking around 5,000 IU vitamin D per day, but this amount varies. The only accurate way to gauge how much you should be taking is to get a blood test.

Of course, the amount of sunshine it takes to meet your daily requirements varies quite largely. It depends on your geographical location, the time of day, the season, and the atmospheric condition. This is why many people choose to supplement with vitamin D3, the natural form the vitamin. Many lower-end multivitamins contain vitamin D2 which, as previously mentioned, is hard for the body to absorb and is also potentially toxic.

If you choose to get your vitamin D naturally via sunshine, then you should be consistently testing your blood for vitamin D levels. You can get this done by lab companies such as Quest. This is truly the only absolute way to determine if you are vitamin D deficient.

Some Symptoms of Vitamin D Deficiency

• Chronic Back Pain (One of the most common symptoms)
• Musculoskeletal Pain
• Irritable Bowel Disease
• Inflammatory Pain
• Nerve Pain or Neuropathy
• ‘Bone Pain’

Vitamin D deficiency is often missed, and never usually brought up by most mainstream medical establishments as a cure for any of these symptoms of conditions. The only way to find out if a vitamin D deficiency is the cause of your pain is to start taking in the correct amount (5,000 IU/day but varies for everyone – see first part of article) of vitamin D per day and see if the symptoms are relieved.

With the vast amount of deficiency, and the resurgence of the rickets, its amazing how often this vital nutrient is ignored. Vitamin D is a free vitamin that can help relieve a host of medical conditions, and prevent most forms of cancer. Take advantage of its benefits.

Sources:

http://ncp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/…
The Healing Sun: Sunlight and Health in the 21st Century, by Richard Hobday PhD
The Vitamin D Cure, by James Dowd and Diane Stafford