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researchers use new imaging methods to show that running burns fat in bone marrow, with benefits for bone health. The best effect was seen in obese mice. Maya Styner, MD, a physician and assistant professor in the division of endocrinology and metabolism, was the study’s lead author.

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Maya Styner, MD, is an assistant professor in Medicine’s Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism
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Composite CT scans of mouse femurs. LFD-E refers to low-fat diet plus exercise. DIO-E refers to diet-induced obesity plus exercise. Red, yellow: less fat in bone. Green, blue, and purple: higher fat amounts. Exercise dramatically reduced bone fat.

(Republished with permission from the )

It’s a fat-burning secret anyone interested in bone health should know. For the first time, researchers show that exercising burns the fat found within bone marrow and offers evidence that this process improves bone quality and the amount of bone in a matter of weeks.

The study, published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, also suggests obese individuals – who often have worse bone quality – may derive even greater bone health benefits from exercising than their lean counterparts.

“One of the main clinical implications of this research is that exercise is not just good, but amazing for bone health,” said lead author , MD, a physician and assistant professor of at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “In just a very short period of time, we saw that running was building bone significantly in mice.”

To read the full article, go to .