The Effect of Pre-exercise Feeding on Bone Turnover Biomarkers

Osteoporosis is a major contributor to loss of independence due to bone fractures and resulting hospital treatments lead to significant morbidity. While pharmacological treatments can reduce consequences of osteoporosis, there is a pressing need for non-pharmacological interventions to improve bone health across the life-course and to reduce likelihood of age-related bone disease.

This study will allow us to determine whether synergistic potentiating effects on bone metabolism are observed in humans in relation to the timing of food ingestion and what recommendations can be made to people with respect to food ingestion and exercise to obtain the maximal bone benefits from aerobic exercise. Furthermore, if we can identify interventions that potentiate bone's response to aerobic exercise in younger adults, then such interventions may have the ability to maximise bone mass in younger adults so that with ageing, the additional bone mineral density and improved bone microarchitecture would extend the time before osteoporotic "fracture thresholds" are reached. Therefore, understanding the bone metabolic response to exercise following fasting and feeding in younger adults is important.