0, indicating that they were not at risk for osteoporosis by any of the established criteria for either adult or adolescent female LY294002 athletes. Because BMD in female athletes in general is higher than sedentary controls, a more stringent cut-off is recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine [15]. Female athletes who have a history of nutritional deficiencies, stress fractures, or other clinical risk factors together with a “low” BMD z-scores (between −1.0 and −2.0 or greater) are considered to be at osteopenic risk. Suboptimal reported intakes of energy, vitamin D and

calcium in our study are somewhat suggestive of a possible clinical deficiency. Even with this possibility, only two of the skaters qualify as at risk. No skater had a history of stress fractures. Energy intakes for the skaters in this study were similar to those reported in other studies CUDC-907 research buy of figure skaters and lower than the 45 kcal/kg suggested for athletes who train for more than

90 minutes per day. [16] Some of this may be explained by underreporting. Intakes reported here were cross sectional in nature and only during training, when the skaters may have been monitoring their intakes carefully. They do not represent long term and usual intakes. In conjunction with this, mean BMI and percent body fat were relatively unremarkable for this group of skaters, and comparable to that reported in other groups of female athletes participating in weight bearing sports-alSelleckchem CP 690550 though both variables ranged markedly among athletes. BMI in our group of skaters averaged 19.1 ± 2.1 compared to female athletes participating in basketball, volleyball, track, softball, soccer, and tennis which averages

ranged between 21.6 ± 2.5 and 23.0 ± 2.4. Percent body fat in gymnasts and speed skaters was 13.1 ± 4.8 and 23.7 ± 7.3 compared to our skaters which averaged 20.2 ± 6.0 [17–21]. It is not surprising that Nintedanib (BIBF 1120) we found a relationship between BMI and BMD z-score in our population. Increases in BMD typically correspond to increases in body size as indicated by weight, height or BMI, a phenomenon that is well recognized [22–24]. However, many athletes of low weight status, who participate in intense physical activity, can compensate for this effect. This may explain why some of our skaters with BMI’s below the norm for age as plotted on the CDC (2000) growth charts still demonstrated BMD scores > 100% above their age and weight matched norms. Therefore, even though our skaters showed a positive relationship between BMI and BMD, meaning those with the greatest BMI had a greater BMD, the BMD z scores of our skaters when compared to reference norms were still greater despite a lower BMI. As might be predicted from what is known about the beneficial effects of jumping and other stressors on bone BMD, single and pair skaters did seem to be better protected from low total body BMD than dancer skaters, even after controlling for dietary intake variables, BMI, and % body fat.