Wellness Wednesday

Whole-Body Vibration May be as Effective as Regular Exercise

Plate vibration, which contracts and relaxes muscles various times within a second, can mimic the muscle and bone health benefits of exercise in mice.

Whole-Body Vibration (WBV) is not a new technology or fitness strategy to the United States, yet the WBV plates are just now entering the market as a new product. Dr. John Harvey-Kelogg was the first in the US to claim that vibration therapy had health and wellness benefits, even going as far as to claim that it was a cure all for ailments of every sort. The Russians picked up on the technology during the space-wars and used it pre, intra, and post space travel to mimic load bearing exercise in their astronauts. They also used the technology in their Olympic athletes during their dominance in the 1980's. The vibration technology has since been very prevalent in Europe, but is only just now penetrating the American market.

Researchers at Augusta University have conducted research looking into WBV as an alternative to exercise to combat the obesity and diabetes epidemics. The researchers examined two groups of 5 week old mice, one with normal hormonal levels and the other group devoid of the hormone leptin (leptin promotes fullness after eating). Both groups were assigned to either sedentary, treadmill (45 minutes at a slight incline) or WBV (20 minutes at 32Hz at 0.5g acceleration) activities for a 12 week time period. The results found that both exercise and WBV enhanced muscle mass and insulin sensitivity in genetically obese mice, and WBV may be a useful supplemental therapy to combat obesity. This research has yet to be utilized in the human population to see if it reaches the same desired results in this experiment.