Whole Body Vibration (WBV) is exploding in popularity worldwide with millions of people using it and enjoying the many benefits of this intensive body, mind, and spirit exercise system. Developed in Russia forty years ago for their astronauts and athletes, it is now used by NASA, athletes, and people from all walks of life around the world. Google “Whole Body Vibration” today, and you will get millions of hits filled with enthusiastic claims about weight loss, bone density, personal energy, elevated moods, pain management, inflammation reduction, anti-aging, and increased sexual libido and performance.
Anybody who’s ever tried working out on a vibrating plate can tell you that exercising while vibrating is hard work. Think of the shoulder muscles of guys who run jack hammers for a quick visual. Don’t worry, though, WBV can be adapted for any level workout; even just standing on a gently vibrating plate will result in benefits.
To date, there are more than 1,000 peer-reviewed studies. Early studies with animals often gave dramatic results. For example, research by Dr. Clinton Rubin, director of the Center for Biotechnology at SUNY Stony Brook, showed a fat loss of nearly 30% and corresponding increases in bone density for mice vibrating fifteen minutes a day for fifteen weeks.
When the research moves to people, the results have been less impressive, with statistically significant but modest results in bone density and weight loss. For example, a 2013 study in Clinical Interventions in Aging reported an increase of 2% in bone density for twenty-eight postmenopausal women using whole body vibration for six months, and a 2010 study in Obesity Facts of sixty-one overweight and obese women concluded that combining “WBV training with caloric restriction can help to achieve a sustained long-term weight loss of 5–10%. . . . WBV training may have the potential to reduce VAT [body fat] more than aerobic exercise.”
Some studies in these two highly researched areas have even found no significant benefits. There are many factors that affect success; the type of vibration (frequency, g-force, time, direction of vibration), and just as importantly, the use of other natural health approaches to support the healing process. The success of WBV depends on how knowledgeably it is used.
WBV affects virtually every organ system in the body. There are hormonal and neurological effects, as well as a detoxification effect. Just as you wouldn’t down a bottle of medicine to treat an ailment, you shouldn’t start arbitrary doses of vibration without expert advice on your particular condition and reaction to vibration.
With every vibration (approximately 20–50 per second), the body’s muscle fibers automatically tense and relax, squeezing the lymph system, which moves toxins out of the body via the liver and kidneys. Since toxins have been linked to chronic health problems, ridding the body of toxins is good for one’s health. However, particularly for people in a stressed or weakened state, including obesity, detoxing too much and too quickly can lead to a health issue becoming worse instead of improving.
Nutritional programs enhance success with WBV. For example, healthy bone formation and growth are complex processes involving numerous systems in the body: bone-building cells within the bone itself, digestion, hormones, the liver and kidneys. With some many systems involved more than a dozen minerals and vitamins are necessary in plentiful amounts.
Especially as people age, critical systems for bone building may not function as well, such as digestion and assimilation of nutrients, and hormonal changes. Moreover, the drugs that older people often take can also interfere. WBV bone-density trials do not provide the full range of nutrients required to build bone. This missing element may explain the poor study results with postmenopausal women versus the excellent results with animals and younger people.
In my work as a natural-health practitioner using WBV with thousands of clients, I have found that a combination of gentle, gradually increasing, individualized WBV programs, plus natural health approaches leads to the greatest success. WBV is an exciting new therapeutic system, but it is a machine! It cannot be sensitive to your individual needs. Use it wisely, with knowledgeable and careful guidance.
