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Episode 86: Inbetweenie -What the Osteoboost? image

Episode 86: Inbetweenie -What the Osteoboost?

S5 E86 ยท Movement Logic: Strong Opinions, Loosely Held
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In this in-between episode of the Movement Logic Podcast, Sarah discusses a new product for osteopenia called Osteoboost, a wearable medical device that uses gentle vibrations to improve bone density and strength, offering a non-invasive alternative to traditional treatments. Sarah delves into the research behind the device, its FDA clearance, and its effectiveness compared to medication and exercise. She emphasizes the importance of heavy lifting for bone health, and expresses concerns about people relying solely on passive treatments like Osteoboost instead of engaging in comprehensive exercise routines.

00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview

02:20 Introduction to Osteoboost

03:00 How Osteoboost Works

04:30 Research and Development Behind Osteoboost

09:30 Clinical Trials and Results

13:37 Comparing Osteoboost to Traditional Treatments

17:21 Final Thoughts and Recommendations

Osteoboost website

Wellen website

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Transcript

Introduction to Movement Logic Podcast

00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Movement Logic podcast with yoga teacher and strength coach Laurel Beaversdorf and physical therapist, Dr. Sarah Court. With over 30 years combined experience in the yoga, movement, and physical therapy worlds, we believe in strong opinions loosely held, which means we're not hyping outdated movement concepts. Instead, we're here with up to date and cutting edge tools, evidence, and ideas to help you as a mover and a teacher.

Exploring OsteoBoost for Osteopenia

00:00:34
Speaker
Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Movement Logic podcast. My name is Sarah Court. I am a physical therapist. And today we're doing an in-betweeny episode, just a little short and sweet one in between our seasons. I wanted to talk today about a new product that is coming onto the market for osteopenia.
00:00:56
Speaker
And I'm going to talk about this new product more in a moment, but first I want to talk about how I found it. I found out about it because of a website called Wellen. And all the sites and references that I list today are going to be in the show notes for you. Laurel and I keep an eye on a few different companies, influencers, people who are trying to thread the impossible needle on bone density.
00:01:20
Speaker
which is they themselves don't teach the kind of heavy lifting or impact training that are the gold standard modalities to build bone but they try to get around it with language choices that kind of sort of sound the same like buff bones, for example, but they don't actually mean anything. Buff doesn't mean anything when we're talking about bones. Or they talk about strength training, but then they don't provide any exercises that are heavy enough to meaningfully impact bone.

Critique of Wellen's Claims and OsteoBoost's Acquisition

00:01:52
Speaker
And so Welland is one of these sites that we've been watching. And you click on the Welland website page and the very first page is a picture of a woman sweating
00:02:05
Speaker
who is lifting, and I kid you not friends, tiny pink dumbbells. So immediately, I'm ah like, oh God, here we go. Their tag, what they describe themselves as is, get stronger, be balanced. Our workouts designed by physical therapists help you get stronger and prevent falls and fractures. Sure.
00:02:27
Speaker
So that's possibly true, that they make you stronger and that they help you prevent falls and fractures by improving your balance. But you can see that they're not making any real claims about building bone density right from the top, right? Because they can't make that claim.
00:02:42
Speaker
So anyway, so that's well in and we're on their mailing list. I get emails from them every now and then I check out they're like five great core exercises and I'll go look at it and I'll be like, yeah, all right, fine. They're fine. Uh, so I recently got an email from well in saying great news. We've teamed up with osteo boost, which is this new.
00:03:03
Speaker
product. So I read the email. I'm like, oh, that's interesting. And then a few days later, I get a second email that says, great news. We've been acquired by OstioBoost, which, as it turns out, is a way more accurate description of what has happened. And here's what they say about that. Wellen has been acquired by OstioBoost. We're thrilled to join forces and share what makes the OstioBoost device truly revolutionary, ushering in a new era of bone health.
00:03:32
Speaker
Okay, so what is

OsteoBoost Technology and NASA's Influence

00:03:34
Speaker
OstioBoost? And I'm gonna read to you how they have described it because I think it's a pretty good description. So this is from the OstioBoost website. Osteob boost is a wearable medical device designed to help improve bone density and strength. It works by delivering gentle vibrations, which stimulate the bones and muscles, promoting bone formation and potentially reducing the risk of osteoporosis. It's a noninvasive, convenient alternative to traditional treatments, such as medications for maintaining or improving bone health. I think that's probably true.
00:04:08
Speaker
It's definitely true that it's not invasive. So the way that you use it, it almost looks like one of those stability belts that women wear sometimes when they're pregnant and they feel like their SI, their sacrum is like going to pop out of their body, right? You've probably seen those. So you wear it around your hips and your lower back and the device itself sits right in the middle of that lower lowest low back area, like probably L4 to S1 kind of an area.
00:04:33
Speaker
And then it what they claim is because it's right on that spot, it allows it to target the area where bone density is often at risk in conditions like osteopenia and osteoporosis. And their argument of the convenience part is that you can go about your regular activities and it's not going to interfere with your day-to-day life, which is going to make it more ah usable and ah we would expect more compliance according to them.
00:05:01
Speaker
All right. So then I took a little dive into who did this, who's making osteobus. So it was created by a company called Bone Health Technologies, which is a medical device company that is focused on non-invasive treatments for osteoporosis and bone health. um They get funding and support from NASA.
00:05:24
Speaker
as well as a lot of other organizations. NASA has done a ton of research into vibration therapy because they use it for the astronauts in space where there's no gravity, right? So there's no chance to create any kind of like impact or weight as a result.
00:05:43
Speaker
astronauts tend to develop bone mineral density loss. So NASA has done a lot of study into vibration for their astronauts, and they're also funding bone health technologies.

Regulatory and Compliance Aspects of OsteoBoost

00:05:53
Speaker
It's also primarily owned by a bunch of investors, which is to be expected. So bone health technologies, this is their like flagship product, this osteoboost product, and it has received FDA clearance as a non-pharmacological treatment for osteopenia.
00:06:11
Speaker
which I think is interesting. It's not FDA approved for osteoporosis. And you will need a prescription to get it. So you would need a prescription saying that you had osteopenia. But if you had osteoporosis, you would not be able to use this device. I don't know why ah it didn't receive clearance for osteoporosis. It may be that they didn't try to get clearance for osteoporosis from the FDA. And they decided, let's just start with osteopenia because it's not as I don't know, scary sounding. Maybe they think you're you're less frail, you're more able to use it or something like that. I'm not sure. So on the OsteoBoost website, there is a hour long webinar on how it works. And I watched it at two and a half times speed because you know how these things go. They did say a few interesting things about what's going on in the osteoporosis world. One of the things that really stood out to me is they said,
00:07:07
Speaker
of the people who are prescribed medication for osteoporosis or osteopenia, only 6% of people are actually taking these medications. That's a heinously low number. And look, I'm not pro osteoporosis medications. I understand why people don't want to take them. They have a host of side effects that go from mild irritants, like a lot of digestive issues, to actually scary side effects like jawbone necrosis.
00:07:34
Speaker
Which is rare, but still, so I get it if people aren't taking the medication. So, Bone Health Technologies, when they're talking about their product, they talk about it in terms of, it's another thing that you need to add to what you're doing. Taking supplements, and they're very big on that, and when they did their clinical trial, everyone was also taking calcium and vitamin D supplements. They talk about exercise the way that people don't know anything about exercise, talk about exercise. And it was like massively frustrating to listen to the three sentences that they devoted to it. But essentially what they said was, it was like some good, some bad. They said, you do need to be exercising. And they said, walking is not enough, which is fantastic because so many medical professionals say things like, oh, just start walking. And walking is not enough. We know that. They say that you should be doing some strength training.
00:08:23
Speaker
And this is where we start to understand why they've teamed up with Wellen. So they say, yes, you should be doing doing some strength training, but you need someone to watch you, like very concerned about you might hurt yourself. And that's a very cover your ass kind of standard thing. They also say that there's a strong chance that you're essentially too old, too frail, too disabled to be able to do it sufficiently.
00:08:47
Speaker
right? It's going to be too hard on your body. And I was just like shaking my head and holding it and going away all at once. Because that is a standard medical doctor thing to say. Unfortunately, a lot of medical doctors are very much dismissive because they're worried about heavy lifting. They just don't see that it's safe for people, even though tons and tons and tons of research has shown over and over again that it has a lift more trial with women with osteoporosis lifting barbells. So this is frustrating that they don't emphasize that as much. air Their focus seems to be on compliance and I guess
00:09:28
Speaker
in their opinion more people are going to be compliant with something like this and frankly I don't think they're wrong. It's like the thing where you take a medication and then you don't feel good and so then they give you another medication to help with the side effects of the first medication when in actuality there might be some completely different thing that you could be doing that wouldn't require either medication. That's what it feels like to me.
00:09:50
Speaker
But anyway, you can go watch this webinar if you want to, but they did do some really good research. Like I am not poo-pooing this device by any means. This device clearly seems to work. So their research that they did a 12 month, which is like unheard of 12 month clinical trial.
00:10:10
Speaker
They had 126 postmenopausal women who had osteopenia. It was randomized. It was double-blinded. It was sham-controlled. like They did all of the things to make sure that it was the best possible research. So there was a control group. The control group wore the belt with something that just made like a click, whereas the other group wore the belt with the actual device.
00:10:34
Speaker
They used osteo boost. They had them use the device an average of three or more times a week for 30 minutes at a time. And they found that there was a measurable decline in bone strength reduction compared to those who did not use the therapeutic device. And also really important, there were no adverse side effects. People's talked about things like low back pain or hip pain, but like those could be from anything and that's not considered like a big deal.
00:11:04
Speaker
The trial has not yet been published, but they found a reduction in the loss of bone strength. So what that means is people still lost some bone strength, but the people who used osteob boost on average, it was only a loss of negative 0.48%. Whereas people who were the sham device had a loss of negative 2.84%. And this is over a year.
00:11:31
Speaker
right that's It might not sound like a big number, but that's actually a really big deal. They also saw reductions in the loss of bone mineral density in the spine and in the hip. They used CT scans. They used DEXA scans to verify the change in bone density. so Ultimately, it doesn't stop you completely from losing bone.
00:11:53
Speaker
and It may not actually reverse your numbers, but it it slows the decline. That's what they're showing. like They also had an 80% patient compliance rate, which is really high. And they did not have any major symptoms involved.
00:12:16
Speaker
they are currently doing another clinical trial and they're just going to keep doing them. Because there's nothing else like this on the market at the moment, they received from something from the FDA called a de novo clearance. So usually class two devices, which is what this kind of device is, are cleared by the FDA through something called a 501k pathway. That's more information than any of us need to know. But because there's no comparable device, they weren't clearing it by saying it's as good as or better than this other device. They're just saying it's the only one and it is safe and effective on its own merit. So that's good news for them. Let's talk about vibration for a moment and why vibration might be useful for

Efficacy and Cost Concerns of OsteoBoost

00:13:00
Speaker
bone. So you may have gotten on like a vibration plate at the gym and done squats or seen people doing like push-ups on it and things like that. And the idea with vibration when it comes to muscle
00:13:09
Speaker
is that it stimulates more motor units because it creates a lack of balance stimulation, right? And so that's what it does for muscles. So let's talk about what NASA did in their research. So they started out with just bone cells that they subjected to vibration as a form of mechanical stimulation.
00:13:32
Speaker
And it produced biomarkers of bone formation in those cells. So then they tested it on animals. They always test animals before they go to humans. They saw for, and then they started doing whole body vibration where NASA astronauts are standing on vibration plates.
00:13:50
Speaker
What the osteoboost people believe is that it's more effective to wear this targeted belt because it applies vibration to the area that needs it most. Whereas if you're standing on a vibration plate, by the time the vibration gets through your body to your hips and your spine, the amount of vibration is actually reduced. Okay, here's my thoughts about all of this. So if you're maybe thinking to yourself, oh, this this seems like something that I should be using. At the moment, the osteoboost device is not covered by insurance.
00:14:18
Speaker
Bone Health Technologies is, according to them, still in discussions with insurers to secure coverage. And it is a prescription only device. So they're like, talk to your provider. Okay. How much does it cost? Unclear. But then I got an email invitation to pre-order it and it's at a special first run price. Plus it comes with an extended warranty or something.
00:14:42
Speaker
So I went through the whole pre-order because I wanted to see, it are they going to tell me a number at any point, like how much this costs? And they did. The Osteoboost Founders Program, it will cost you $865. You need a prescription for it. You also get various other things. And here's the part where it makes sense. You also get a year free access to well-in exercises, right? They're like, do some of this gentle-ish strength training. That seems okay, even though it's really not. They're like, take supplements and use your Osteoboost. You know,
00:15:13
Speaker
They make this point, and I believe that it's true. Compared to taking medication, there's far fewer side effects, so you're much more likely to have people on it if we're just comparing this device to medication alone.
00:15:25
Speaker
Comparing it to exercise, it's another passive treatment that does not confer the major benefits of heavy lifting and impact training on the rest of your body, like strength, balance, mood, confidence. Your bones are denser.
00:15:43
Speaker
or less not dense, I suppose is the better way to say it, but you are not stronger necessarily. And perhaps, let's just say you are on the frailer side of things and you do the bands and the lightweights that Wellen gives you access to as exercises and you get a bit stronger, great. But you don't have to do that. Nobody's, you don't get to use the osteo boost once you've done your exercises. Like they're just saying, oh, and also do this.
00:16:11
Speaker
And let's say even best case scenario, you do the exercises, unless you are in a really frail state, they're not going to impact anything about your strength or your bone density.
00:16:24
Speaker
or your balance or any of those things for long, you're probably going to outgrow these exercises very quickly because they do not contain progressive overload and progressive overload is one of the main factors involved in heavy lifting that continues to make a difference to your bones, right? Continuing to increase the weight as your body tolerates it will continue to build bone mineral density for your body. Let's say you were very frail. Let's say you are wheelchair bound most of the time and you only walk with a lot of assistance and you have osteoporosis and but excuse me, you have osteopenia and you're concerned about falling and breaking something. This would probably be a useful thing for you to have.
00:17:16
Speaker
You should also be working on your balance and your strength, and that might be someone that would benefit for ah for a time from the well-in exercises. that That's a the scenario in which I envisioned this being an appropriate thing to do. You could also, let's say you're not that frail, you have osteopenia, you're doing heavy lifting, but you decide, you know what? I just want to get as many benefits as I possibly can. I'm going to throw everything at this. Sure. And you've got $865 to spare. Absolutely. Go for it,

Comparing Exercise to OsteoBoost's Benefits

00:17:53
Speaker
right? My concern, my biggest concern is that
00:17:57
Speaker
People in general are not convinced that exercise in and of itself is a worthwhile pursuit. So this would probably appeal to those people. But, you know, I'm concerned that people would choose to do this instead of doing the kinds of exercise that not only is good for your bone health, but there's no arguing against the benefit of exercise for everyone, every single body without exception.
00:18:27
Speaker
My sense overall is that their hearts are in the right place. And this may be a useful addition to a menu of things that you are doing for your osteoporosis. It's frustrating as hell that they are still fear mongering weightlifting, heavy weightlifting as a way to injure yourself when we have the so much evidence to the contrary.
00:18:52
Speaker
I would see the reality of what I think might happen is someone might use this device and they would take the supplements, but they're not gonna really probably do any exercise. And so it's yet another way to circumvent the whole body benefits of exercise, which is the biggest problem at the moment for people's health in this country is that most people don't exercise.
00:19:17
Speaker
I'm like mixed about this one. When you're talking about medication or you're talking about a device like this, they're not, they can't involve themselves in things like, oh, and we are going to provide gyms where you will have access to the kind of heavy lifting that you need to do. And we will provide physical therapists who will take you through the exercises and make sure that you have good form. That's not something that they are considering because that's not something that you can make money off of. Let's be clear.
00:19:46
Speaker
And there's nothing wrong with researching and making a device that's genuinely helpful and making money off of it. It just makes me nervous. You know what I mean? It makes me nervous that it's going to be another thing that people use instead of exercise. That's all. In summary, if you've got some free cash floating around and you want to get one of these things, there's a wait list, but you can get on it. It does not preempt heavy lifting. It does not preempt taking supplements. I can't speak to taking supplements because I'm not a medical doctor, but that is something that is recommended for people with osteoporosis and osteopenia. Ultimately, in my opinion, nothing is better than heavy lifting and strength training.
00:20:29
Speaker
Not only because it confers massive benefits to your bones, and I've seen people reverse their osteoporosis by using it, but also it confers greater longevity to your life, greater quality of life for the last 10, 20, 30 years. Reduces all kinds of disease.
00:20:50
Speaker
Risk reduces bad mood. it Exercise, there's nothing else like it. And until we figure out a way to convince people that it's not a chore and it's not a punishment, but that it's actually something that they are going to benefit from.
00:21:08
Speaker
then we're going to keep making products like this to try to get around that. That's my feeling. All right friends, thank you so much for listening. Links to everything I talked about are in the show notes. Have a wonderful couple of weeks and we will see you in two weeks.