In women, bone loss starts after entering the fourth decade of life and accelerates after the onset of menopause. A preventative approach should already have been started to achieve maximum peak bone mass and to reduce subsequent bone loss, that is, before onset of menopause. It is still not clear whether the postmenopausal acceleration in bone loss is just an effect of estrogen deficiency and age itself or is associated with secondary factors such as malnutrition, vascular changes, or deterioration of locomotor system because of decreased physical activity.  This study was designed as a randomized and prospective intervention to explore the potential beneficial effects of a supervised Tai Chi Chun (TCC) exercise on the prevention of early postmenopausal bone loss—a fast bone loss phase of a woman’s life—by monitoring BMD changes in the weight-bearing bones at the spine and hip and the distal tibia.

This study investigated low-impact weight-bearing TCC exercise as a technique for preventing bone loss in postmenopausal women. Although the BMD measurement results show the expected generalized bone loss at all skeletal sites in both the TCC and control groups, 12 months of a supervised TCC exercise training intervention revealed some beneficial effects in delay of bone loss, with a significantly reduced rate of bone loss in both trabecular and cortical compartments of distal tibia. Similar findings have been reported in previously. Level of physical activity reduces with advancing age in older persons and such inactivity accelerates bone loss. The most probable explanation for the beneficial effects of TCC exercise on reducing bone loss found in our study may be attributed to the TCC exercise intervention and its association with a more active lifestyle.

Age-matched and randomized prospective intervention. One hundred thirty-two healthy postmenopausal women (mean age, 54.0+/-3.5y) within 10 years of menopause onset were recruited and randomized into the TCC exercise group (n=67) or the sedentary control group (n=65). Supervised TCC exercise was performed by the TCC group for 45 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for 12 months; control subjects retained a sedentary life style. Main outcome measures Bone mineral density (BMD) was measured in the lumbar spine and proximal femur by using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry and in the distal tibia by using multislice peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT). All BMD measurements were repeated after 12 months in both groups. Fracture rate was also documented. 

This is the first prospective and randomized study to show that a programmed TCC exercise intervention is beneficial for retarding bone loss in weight-bearing bones in early postmenopausal women. Long-term follow-up is needed to substantiate the role of TCC exercise in the prevention of osteoporosis and its related fracture.