Pair skaters also had significantly greater pelvic z scores than their dancer counterparts. Since other factors were controlled for in this study, this finding is likely to relate to a training effect. This

is also supported by the fact that there was no difference in spine bone density among the groups, which does not receive as much of the Doramapimod impact of landing, among the three skater disciplines. Disagreement among measures of BMD taken by different DXA models, makes additional comparisons of our data to other reference norms difficult [23, 25]. However, values for total BMD in our skaters were similar to that found in a group of selleck chemicals intercollegiate female athletes participating in weight-bearing sports such as gymnastics, soccer, volleyball and track, who were measured on the same DXA unit and software package [22]. These healthy 20 female athletes had a similar BMI (average of 19.1 kg/m2), to our population. Their absolute BMD was 1.2 gm/cm2 compared to our group mean

absolute BMD of 1.1 (range: 0.9-1.3) gm/cm2. Field hockey players were also studied using this system. Their absolute BMD was higher than our skaters, (1.3 ± 0.05), but they were older (mean age: 27 ± 3 and had a higher BMI of 22 ± 1.3), which may explain increased BMD over our smaller, younger study selleck inhibitor population. Absolute BMD measures in sedentary controls used for comparison in their study (but with a greater weight) were equivalent to our BMD, supporting again that physical activity in our skaters compensated for smaller body size [22, 23]. In conclusion, our study shows that bone mineral density varies across skater discipline, with single skaters receiving the largest benefit from training effect in bone loading regions. Skater dancers may be at higher risk since their training does not compensate for the potential of low energy and

bone building micronutrient availability as well as do the more intense exercise of the singles and pair dancers. Acknowledgements We thank all of the elite skaters who volunteered the US Figure Skating Association and the US Olympic Committee for their participation in this study. References 1. Slemenda CW, Johnston CC: High intensity activities in young women: site specific bone Methocarbamol mass effects among female figure skaters. Bone Miner 1993, 20:125–132.PubMedCrossRef 2. Oleson CV, Busconi BD, Baran DT: Bone density in competitive figure skaters. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2002, 83:122–128.PubMedCrossRef 3. Smith AD: The young skater. Clin Sports Med 2000, 19:741–755.PubMedCrossRef 4. Ziegler PJ, Kannan S, Jonnalagadda SS, Krishnakumar A, Taksali SE, Nelson JA: Dietary intake, body image perceptions, and weight concerns of female US International Synchronized Figure Skating Teams. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab 2005, 15:550–566.PubMed 5.