OSU Researchers to Shake-Up Hip Replacement Therapy
02-09-06

By Stephen Swanson, 541-737-0789
SOURCE: Gianni Maddalozzo, 541-737-6802

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Good vibrations may be the key for Oregon State University researchers seeking to aid hip replacement patients.

To study the benefits of a whole body vibration exercise regime – similar to that used by astronauts and Olympians – OSU scientists will put volunteers through workouts on vibrating platforms designed to improve strength, flexibility and balance, said Gianni Maddalozzo, a researcher in OSU’s College of Health and Human Sciences.

Customized workouts will be created for volunteers ages 60-75 who have had partial hip replacement surgery in the past two years, said Maddalozzo, whose appointment is in the college’s Department of Exercise and Sport Science.

Participants will then undergo supervised workouts for two days a week in Salem or Corvallis. A control group will also be recruited and will perform the same exercises, but won’t use the vibrating platform.

“Most people, when they hear about whole body vibration therapy, they tend to laugh,” Maddalozzo said. But as the population ages, he added, osteoporosis, or “brittle bones,” and related fractures are becoming an increasing problem and hip fracture is the most devastating complication of osteoporosis.

“A number of animal studies, examining sheep, turkeys and rats, show that vibration treatment has a significant effect on bone formation and muscle mass,” Maddalozzo said. “When researchers tried a vibration platform regime with sheep, they saw huge increases in bone mass among the animals.”

But in hip fracture patients, bone mass is not the primary concern.

“The bone heals itself; that’s not the issue,” Maddalozzo said. “The issue is increasing muscle mass, strength and balance with a workout program that is safe and practical.

“Whole body vibration training has been promoted as an efficient, safe alternative for resistance training,” he added. “Even if performed to exhaustion the increases in heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen uptake during whole body vibration training are negligible. Moreover, vibration training has been shown to be as efficient as standard resistance training for improving strength and balance in older women.”

In addition to customized workouts volunteers will receive free bone scans to measure bone mass.

The vibrating work stations resemble giant home scales with upraised handles. Vibration levels will be set at 30 hertz, giving muscles 30 cycles of vibration per second, making them contract and relax 30 times per second.
Individuals will probably start at about 10 minutes of exercise for each session and gradually build to 20-minute workouts.

“You can get the benefits of a 45- to 50-minute workout for less than half that time with a whole body vibration workout,” Maddalozzo pointed out.

The slight shaking may momentarily startle newcomers, but people usually adjust to it in a few moments, Maddalozzo said. A support harness can be used for participants who fear losing their balance.

The therapy period will last six months. Anyone interested in volunteering for the study can contact Maddalozzo at 541-737-6802 or herronja@onid.orst.edu. About the OSU College of Health and Human Sciences:
Emphasizing a holistic approach to optimal health and disease prevention, researchers focus on nutrition, physical activity, the psychology of aging improving the health of children and older adults, public policy, access to health care, and maximizing environmentally friendly materials and structures.

Whole-Body Vibration Training in Multiple Sclerosis patients – a Pilot Study.

Siv Ohlin1, Edzard B. Zeinstra2
1 Department of Neurological Physiotherapy, Malmo, Sweden
2 Power Plate International, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this pilot study was to examine whether a Whole-Body Vibration device (Power Plate) leads to strength and balance increase, endurance improvement, and improved functional performance in daily life, in Multiple Sclerosis patients.
DESIGN: Pilot Clinical Trial Study
SETTING: Outpatient of a physiotherapy clinic in Malmo, Sweden
SUBJECTS: Ten Multiple Sclerosis patients with moderate to severe disability (Kurtzke’s Expanded Disability Status Scale 4.0 – 6.5) were included in the study.
INTERVENTION: A Whole-Body Vibration (WBV) at low frequency (30 Hz oscillations at Low amplitude (18 m/s2)) in 10 series of 30 seconds, with 30 break pause inbetween
the series. The WBV was administered twice a week for a period of 12 weeks. Variations of squats and lunges as well as upper body and stretching exercises were used as exercises and positions on the WBV-device.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Timed Get Up and Go Test, Timed 10 Meter Walk, Timed 20 Meter Walk (including turn around after 10 meter), Six-minute Walk, Timed Rise Up from a Chair and Sit Down on a Chair Ten Times, Nine Hole Peg Test (left & right). The pre-test was performed 1 week before the intervention and the post-test one week after the 12 week program.
RESULTS: All 10 patients finished the 12 weeks intervention program. A one tailed T-test showed a significant group effect for the Timed Get Up and Go Test (p< 0.05)
and for the Nine Hole Peg Test for both the right and the left hand (p < 0.05). After correcting for outliers (two SD’s from the mean) a significant effect was found for
the Rise and Sit Down 10 Times Test (p < 0.05). The other tests didn’t show a significant increase for the group. However, most individual patients increased a little in performance or stayed at a similar level. With the 10 Meter Walk Test seven out of nine patients improved or stayed at the same level (one outlier). On the Six Minutes Walk and the 20 Meter Walk Test six out of nine patients were able to maintain or improve their performance (1 outlier).
CONCLUSION: The results of this pilot study indicate that whole-body vibration with the Power-Plate may positively influence postural control, balance, mobility, strength, and endurance in Multiple Sclerosis patients. Short tasks where explosive strength and coordination was required (Get Up and Go, Rise and Sit Down, and Nine Hole Peg Test) showed a significant improvement. While the longer test (20 meter walk, 6 minute walk) didn’t show significance increase post intervention. Results from other studies reveal a similar finding, indicating that whole-body vibration influences power and explosive strength, although exercises are not performed explosively, often even statically.
In a degenerative disease like Multiple Sclerosis maintaining function and performance is a major goal of therapy. For most people, being independent for longer is a huge increase in quality of life, and will reduce the need for professional help and support significantly. The results in this pilot study showed that most of the patients maintained their level of performance which indicates the positive benefits that could be gained with a whole-body vibrating program. Further research with a control group need to be done in order to find out if – and how- a whole-body vibration program is a valuable training program for Multiple Sclerosis patients.
February 2007

Athlete Performance

* The influence of Whole Body Vibration on jumping performance. (C. Bosco, M. Cardinale, O. Tsarpela, R. Colli – Biol. Sport, 1998)

* New Trends in training science: The use of vibrations for enhancing performance. (C. Bosco, M. Cardinale, O. Tsarpela, E. Locatelli – New Stud Athletics – 1999)

* Adaptive responses of human skeletal muscle to vibration exposure. (C. Bosco, R. Colli, E. Introini, M. Cardinale, O. Tsarpela, A. Madella – Clinical Physiology, 1999)

* Acute Whole Body Vibration Training increases vertical jump and flexibility performance in elite female field hockey players. (D.J. Cochrane, S.R. Stannard – British Medical Journal, 2005)

* Acute and residual effects of vibratory stimulation on explosive strength in elite and amateur athletes: Influence of vibration on mechanical power and electromyogram activity in human arm flexor muscles. (C. Bosco, M. Cardinale, O. Tsarpela – European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology , 1999)

* Acute changes in neuromuscular excitability after exhaustive Whole Body Vibration exercise as compared to exhaustion by squatting exercise. (J. Rittweger, M. Mutschelknauss, D. Felsenburg – Clinical Physiology and Functional Imaging, 2003)

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Muscle Power and Strength

* Human skeletal muscle structure and function preserved by Vibration muscle exercise following 55 days of bed rest. (D. Blottner, M. Salanova, B. Püttman, G. Schiffl, D. Felsenberg, B. Buehring, J. Rittweger – European Journal of Applied Physiology, 2006)

* The use of Vibration Training to enhance muscle strength and power. (J. Luo, B. McNamara, K. Moran – Sports Medicine, 2005)

* Effect of Whole Body Vibration stimulus and voluntary contraction on motoneuron pool. (Y. Nishihira, T. Iwasaki, A. Hatta, T. Wasaka, T. Kaneda, K. Kuroiwa, S. Akiyama, T. Kida, K.S. Ryol – Advances in exercise and sports physiology, 2002)

* Short-term effects of Whole Body Vibration on maximal voluntary isometric Knee extensor force and rate of force rise. (C. de Ruiter, E. van der Linden, M. van der Zijden, A. Hollander, A. de Haan – European Journal of Applied Physiology, 2003)

* High-Efficiency Vibration training increases muscle power in postmenopausal women. (C.R. Russo, F. Laurentani, S. Bandinelli, B. Bartali, C. Cavazzini, J. Guralnik, L. Ferrucci – Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 2003)

* Effect of a vibration exposure on muscular performance and body balance. (S. Torvinen, P. Kannus, H. Sievanen, T.A.H. Jarvinen, M. Pasanen, S. Kontulainen, T.L.N. Järvinen, P.Oja, I. Vuori – Clinical Physiology, 2002)

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Metabolic Changes

* Hormonal Reponses to Whole Body Vibration in men. (C. Bosco, M. Lavovelli, O. Tsarpela, M. Cadinale, M. Bonifazi, J. Tihanyi, M. Viru, A. DeLorenzo, A. Viru – European Journal of Applied Physiology, 2000)

* The effects of vibration on human performance and hormonal profile. (C. Hammel, M. Hartard, C. Kleinmond, H. Schiessl, D. Jeschke – Doctoral thesis, Semmelweis University, 2002)

* Whole Body Vibration exercise leads to alterations in muscle blood volume. (K. Kerschan-Schindl, S. Grampp, C. Henk, H. Resch, E. Preisinger – Clinical Physiology, 2001)

* Oxygen uptake during Whole Body Vibration exercise: Comparison with squatting as a slow voluntary movement. (J. Rittweger, H. Schiessl, D. Falsenberg – European Journal of Applied Physiology, 2001

* Acute physiological effects of exhaustive Whole Body Vibration exercise in man. (J. Rittweger, G. Beller, D. Felsenberg – Clinical Psychology, 2000)

* Oxygen uptake in Whole Body Vibration exercise: Influence of vibration frequency, amplitude and external load. (J. Rittweger, J. Ehrig, K. Just, M. Mutschelknauss, K.A. Kirsch, D. Felsenberg – International Journal of Sports Medicine, 2002)

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Senior Performance

* Controlled Whole Body Vibration to decrease fall risk and improve health-related quality of life of nursing home residents. ( O. Bruyere, M.A. Wuidart, E. Di Palma, M. Gourlay, O. Ethgen, F. Richy, J. Reginster – Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 2005)

* Efficacy of training program for ambulatory competence in elderly women. (J. Iwamoto, Y. Otaka, K. Kudo, T. Takeda, M. Uzawa, K. Hirabayashi – The Keio Journal of Medicine, 2004)

* Balance training and exercise in geriatric patients. (M. Runge, G. Rehfeld, E. Resnicek – J Musculoskel Neuron Interact, 2000)

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Bones

* The anabolic activity of bone tissue, suppressed by disuse, is normalized by brief exposure to extremely low-magnitude mechanical stimuli. (C. Rubin – The FASEB Journal, 2001)

* Effect of Whole Body Vibration on muscular performance, balance and bone. (S. Torvinen – Acta Universitatis Tamp Erensis 908 University of Tampere, Tampere, 2003)

* Low frequency vibratory exercise reduces the risk of bone fractures more than walking. (N. Gusi, A. Raimundo, A. Leal – BMC Muscoloskeletal Disorders, 2006)

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Low Back Pain

* The effect of weight bearing exercise with low frequency, Whole Body Vibration on lumbosacral proprioception: A pilot study on normal subjects. (T.L. Fontana, C.A. Richardson, W.R. Stanton – Australian Journal of Physiotherapy, 2005)

* Treatment of chronic lower back pain with lumbar extension and Whole Body Vibration exercise. (J. Rittweger, K. Just, K. Kautzsch, P. Reeg, D. Felsenberg – Spine, 2002)

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Neurological Conditions

* Effects of Whole Body Vibration in patients with multiple sclerosis: A pilot study. (O. Schuhfried, C. Mittermaier, T. Jovanovic, K. Pieber, T. Paternostro-Sluga – Clinical Rehabilitation, 2003)

* Effects of random Whole Body Vibration on postural control in Parkinson’s Disease. (S. Turbanski, C.T. Haas, S. Schmidtbleicher, A. Friedrichl; P. Duisberg – Research in Sports Medicine, 2005)

* Short-term effects of Whole Body Vibration on postural control in unilateral chronic stroke patients. (I.J. van Nes, A.C. Geurts, H.T. Hendricks, J. Duysens – American Journal of Phyical Medicine & Rehabilitation, 2004)

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Urinary Incontinence

* Effect on Muscles of mechanical vibrations produced by the Galileo 2000 in combination with physical therapy in treating female stress urinary incontinence. (S. von der Heide, G. Emons, R. Hilgers, V. Viereck – galileowholebodyvibraiton.com.au)