RESEARCH FOCUS/Waterford IT: Some 190 women have been recruited from Waterford and its surrounds to take part in a study on  women's bone health. Anne Byrne reports

Given the choice between attending aromatherapy or intensive exercise classes, most of us would opt for the aromatherapy.

A group of women volunteers assisting a study on women's bone health for Waterford Institute of Technology were not given that choice. They were randomly assigned to a control group (nice sedentary classes), an intensive or a moderate exercise group. This is a considerable commitment as the study lasts for a full year. A sub-group of the women volunteered for an even more invasive study, but more about that later.

Dr Niamh Murphy, the director of the Centre for Health Behavioural Research at Waterford IT, explains that 190 women have been recruited from Waterford and its surrounds. An initial pilot study was conducted in 1998 involving 68 women who exercised for nine months.

When bone health was assessed using ultrasound some improvement was observed. This time, the exercise will be targeted and ultrasound will be used in conjunction with a variety of other markers for bone health.

The 190 volunteers range in age from 37 to 72 years and are totally "normal" in that they have a wide variety of medical conditions and exercise histories. They range from pre- to post-menopausal with some women on HRT while others are not. Their GP's consent was obtained in all cases.

With funding from the Technological Sector Research Programme, a Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) machine, to measure bone density, has been purchased.

Rosie Donnelly, who co-ordinates the bone health study, together with Niamh Murphy, says: "This is one of the very few large-scale longitudinal bone health studies in the world. As far as we know, there has been one other study, and it was carried out in the US.

"We recruited volunteers about 18 months ago, using local papers, radio and college noticeboards. The women were invited to come in for some baseline physical measurements such as body fat, blood pressure, resting heart rate and height-to-weight ratio." A Broadband Ultrasound Attentuation machine was used to do a heel test, indicative of bone quality in terms of density and elasticity.

The DEXA machine is the gold standard for bone density measurements, according to Murphy. So, each of the women had the bone density of their hip and spine measured using the DEXA. Physical fitness measures, psychosocial attitudes towards exercise and health were assessed. The group was divided into controls, and high and low intensity exercise groups.

The exercise classes began before Easter. The control group is being offered classes such as an introduction to computers and aromatherapy, as a means of keeping them involved.

Donnelly says that those who are exercising are following a very strict programme that targets the areas most at risk from osteoporosis: the hip, the spine and the wrists. The aim is to increase bone loading, to move in unusual directions and at different strain rates. This builds up strength and flexibility so that bone can survive a fall without breaking.

The premise is that targeted rather than haphazard exercise can help protect against fractures. It will be at least a year before the results are available.

A sub-group of 12 women have agreed to take part in a study of the biochemical response of postmenopausal women to exercise of different types.

Bone is constantly being resorbed (broken down) or formed. The hypothesis of this study is that exercise may be beneficial because it slows down the resorption phase of the bone turnover process.

The women initially collect all of the urine they passed for five consecutive days and give fasting blood samples on each of the five days to establish their baseline bone resorption and formation rates. They then undertake three early morning bouts of short, high-intensity exercise on a bike, and for seven subsequent days their bone response to the exercise is measured.

Research assistant Máiréad Loughnane says, in human terms, this means getting up, not having any breakfast, coming in, pedalling an exercise bike and getting a needle stuck in you before you are allowed to have breakfast. The process is later repeated but this time the volunteers exercise moderately for 75 minutes (bet these women wish they were in the control group, sniffing healing aromas, or e-mailing their friends).

Murphy says the most-up-date bone markers are being employed and this type of research has not been previously undertaken. This part of the study is being undertaken in conjunction with the Department of PE and Sport Science at UL.

As well as the bone health study, the Centre for Health Behaviour Research is involved in a large-scale study investigating overweight children and obesity and the mechanisms underlying fat metabolism. This is a collaboration with DCU. Murphy and Michael Harrison (who is working on the obesity project) are also involved in a research project in conjunction with the South Eastern Health Board that aims to reduce weight in primary school children by increasing physical activity and decreasing the amount of time spent in front of the TV and playing computer games.

Whatever your age or sex, you are not exempt from the desire of the Waterford group to get you up off the couch and on to your bike.

To this end, the group is also co-ordinating a national programme with the Health Promotion Department of the South Eastern Health Board, promoting exercise for older adults in care settings. A video on osteo-exercise is in the offing. Don't says you haven't been warned.