Forensic anthropologist, sport scientist join forces for bone health study

Anthropologist, sport scientist join forces for bone health study

KENNESAW, Ga. | Jul 13, 2020

One professor studies the bones of the deceased, the other studies the bones of the living. They will combine their expertise on a study about how exercise fosters bone health.

Alice Gooding, associate professor of anthropology at 肉肉传媒鈥檚 and an avid runner, and Yuri Feito, associate professor of exercise science in KSU鈥檚 , met last year during a in KSU鈥檚 Office of Research. Feito said that they quickly found that they had some things in common. Both earned their doctorates from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and both have an interest in exercise science. Gooding said she also recognized the parallel between their areas of expertise.

鈥淲e were part of an initial group of about 20 faculty members who participated in the grant writing professional development program鈥� Gooding said. 鈥淗e started talking about his work, and I started talking about my work, so we decided to partner.鈥�

Feito brought to the table a previous study on changes in strength, bone metabolism and body composition. The study showed a 5 percent increase in bone density among the participants over 16 weeks of high intensity fitness training. Gooding was intrigued.

鈥淢ost of the literature says you need at least six months of training in order to have a significant effect on positive bone mass,鈥� Feito said. 鈥淭his very small project with a bunch of generally healthy individuals showed a significant improvement in bone mineral content in just 16 weeks. When Professor Gooding and I started talking about that, her eyes lit up and she said, 鈥榃e need to do something on this because this is pretty big.鈥欌€�

Feito said the newer study will take place over two years and involve upwards of 300 participants in CrossFit, racquet sports and running. He said he hopes to add a public health justification for doctors to prescribe exercise; the improvement in bone health leads to fewer issues down the road.

The study will use both Feito鈥檚 and Gooding鈥檚 laboratories as well. Feito has a DEXA scanner that measures changes in weight and body composition as a result of changes on bone and muscle composition, while Gooding鈥檚 Bone Biomechanics Lab features a CT scanner.

鈥淎 large portion of the data will be split between our labs,鈥� she said. 鈥淗e鈥檚 collecting a lot of the biometric data in terms of weight and height and bone density with his DEXA scanner, and I鈥檒l be collecting the geometric properties of the bone and some more intricate stuff in terms of bone density with the CT scanner in my lab.鈥�

Gene Ray, associate professor of statistics in the , is the third member of the research team. Ray said he鈥檚 happy to help out with the study as it hits on a couple of areas of his expertise鈥攄ata science and wellness.

鈥淚鈥檓 trained as a biostatistician, so health and wellness are probably nearest to my heart,鈥� he said. 鈥淧lus, I like to do things that have some sort of community impact or direct benefit. Those are typically the projects that I鈥檓 involved with.

鈥淚鈥檓 just trying to provide the best methods to give insights and hopefully try to answer Dr. Feito鈥檚 and Dr. Gooding鈥檚 questions, but also inform them on other questions that may arise. So my role is as a translator to translate the data into meaningful information.鈥�

Gooding said the size of the project required the participation of someone like Ray to exclusively deal with the numbers, which makes this a truly interdisciplinary project.

鈥淭he thing that we find the coolest is coming from completely different backgrounds, we have very common research goals,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e talking about three different colleges involved, and that is pretty unique from my perspective.鈥�

鈥� Dave Shelles

肉肉传媒

Anthropologist, sport scientist join forces for bone health study

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