Mice vibrate their way to lower body fat, stronger bones
Clifford Rosen, Professor at The Jackson Laboratory, participated in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) that has attracted a lot of attention lately and offers some intriguing possibilities. Then again, if you put the words “reduce body fat” into a scientific paper, it’s sure to get noticed. Even better if the fat-reduction process also looks like it builds stronger bones and takes little time or effort.
Rosen worked with a research team led by Clinton Rubin at Stony Brook (NY) University that discovered that even brief exposure to high-frequency, low magnitude vibrations appeared to make mice leaner. The mechanism is remarkably simple as well. Cells that have the potential to turn into fat, muscle or bone were inhibited from turning to fat by the vibrations, instead developing into muscle or bone cells.
Rosen—renowned for his work on bone disorders, including osteoporosis—characterized the findings as “incredibly important.” Clinical studies are already under way to determine if vibrations help build bone in humans and will now also examine their impact on fat production.
