Arm fat may reveal women and men at risk of spinal fracture, reveals study

“Surprisingly, we identified, for the first time, that the body composition of the arms-in particular, the fat mass of the arms-is negatively associated with the bone quality and strength of the vertebrae”, said senior author Professor Eva Kassi.

“This could mean that the arm’s subcutaneous fat, which can be easily estimated even by the simple and inexpensive skin-fold calliper method, may emerge as a useful index of bone quality of the spine, possibly predicting the vertebrae fracture risk.”

She added: “It should be noted that visceral fat-which we found to be strongly correlated with low bone quality-is the hormonally more active component of the total body fat. It produces molecules called adipocytokines that provoke a low-grade inflammation, so the increased inflammatory status plausibly poses a negative impact on bone quality.”

Professor Kassi acknowledges that larger studies are needed to confirm the link between arm fat and spinal fracture risk. “Although our results remain robust after controlling for age and weight, we will now increase the number of participants and expand the age range by including younger adults between the ages of 30 and 50 years old, as well as more men”, she said.

“Moreover, using the loss of arm fat mass as a marker, we will try to determine the most effective physical exercise routine that not only targets the visceral fat but also focuses on the upper part of the body so that these higher-risk adults lose arm fat and achieve a favourable effect on vertebrae bone quality.”

Reference:

Arm fat may reveal women and men at risk of spinal fracture, European Society of Endocrinology, Meeting: European Congress of Endocrinology.