Connect
← Return to Whole Body Vibration for Osteoporosis
Discussion
Whole Body Vibration for Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis & Bone Health | Last Active: Aug 12 2:55pm | Replies (146)Comment receiving replies
@tetris I'm not sure how to say this nicely but I disagree strongly with the content and tone of your comments about Belinda Beck and the VIBMOR study. I've been following Belinda Beck's work for years now and I'm very impressed with the quality of her studies and the light she and her co-workers are shedding on exercise's effects on bone health. Really important work. BTW, I read her studies as I feel they are that important and useful.
The VIBMOR study has not been released yet so I cannot comment on what it will say but in her interviews she has been very honest and forthright about a result she did not anticipate. That being that the low intensity vibration had no detectable effect on bone density. It's not what she expected or what she wanted to be found but she is openly stating that this is what the data is showing. Her only qualifications are that the analysis and publication has not been completed.
For the vibration to be unsuccessful is not a failure of the study. As to it being flawed she listed one mistake that the exercise intensity was not done at 85% of the 1 rep max as was used in the other studies they conducted. Neither she nor Margie Bissinger stated or concluded that it was therefore a "flawed study" as you categorize it to be.
Your insinuations that " that Rubin and she are motivated (desperate?) to salvage the flawed study." is just wild conjecture, nothing more.
If she was trying to hide something I don't think she would be doing interviews and broadcasting results that, according to you, she is desperately trying to hide.
Replies to "@tetris I'm not sure how to say this nicely but I disagree strongly with the content..."
Connect
@awfultruth,
I have no problem with people on this forum disagreeing with me. In response to your uncertainty, if you are unsure about how to disagree with someone nicely on the forum, please follow Mayo’s community rules (see https://connect.mayoclinic.org/blog/about-connect/tab/community-guidelines/) .
My reply to yours:
1. My post was just about the VIBMOR trial. It was in response to Belinda Beck's 7/8/2024 Facebook comments at https://www.facebook.com/theboneclinic/ that were posted on this forum. My comments were not about Beck's entire body of work, nor its breadth, quality, importance, and applicability.
2. Yes, Beck was upfront and clear in her interview with Margie Bissinger about the VIBMOR trial’s flaws (or limitations or shortcomings, if you prefer). I never said she wasn’t. In the interview :
____a. Beck “discovered after the fact that my research assistants didn’t actually load up the participants as heavily as they needed to. And, ultimately, they were only doing moderate intensity” (vs. high intensity exercise per the study protocol). Beck's words in quotes.
____b. Beck said the study had difficulty getting the Marodyne plates delivered and so couldn't recruit the full sample of 400 (got ~250) stipulated in the study protocol. Thus, she said it’s possible they didn't have the power to change in bone density in the vibration group(s) because of an insufficient number of study participants. Beck's words paraphrased.
3. My post said it sounds like from Beck’s Facebook post, that “Rubin and she are motivated (desperate?) to salvage the flawed study” (my words in quotes). You interpreted this as “...If she was trying to hide something I don't think she would be doing interviews and broadcasting results that, according to you, she is desperately trying to hide.” (your words in quotes). I'm puzzled by your remarks because my comments did not say anywhere that Beck “is trying to hide something”.
4. Yes, I admit it’s “wild conjecture” (your words in quotes) and my opinion only, but in the publish-or-perish world of academia, I’d be motivated too to try to salvage a flawed study (or a study with shortcomings) given the time, effort, and expense spent on it.
5. You wrote “for the vibration to be unsuccessful is not a failure of the study.” (your words in quotes). My post never implied this, nor did my post refer to or discuss any results from the VIBMOR trial.
6. I still believe that a well-planned study does not have “many, many outcomes” (Beck’s words in quotes).
I had heard through the grapevine the VIBMOR trials were going to be published in spring 2024; however, based on Beck’s Facebook post, it will be “a little while yet” (Beck’s words in quotes). As a person who follows a modified strength-training program based on results from Beck’s LIFTMOR trial, I will be interested in reading them.