Overview 

Our design mainly aims at providing a non-pharmacological treatment for osteoporosis and obesity. It has been reported that short durations (<20 minutes) of low-magnitude mechanical signals (30 Hz, 0.3g) represent a safe, non-invasive, and a non-pharmacological means to inhibit osteoporosis and suppress obesity (1). These mechanical signals inhibit osteoporosis since they were found to be strongly anabolic to bone and are capable of enhancing both bone quantity and quality (1). Furthermore, these extremely low-magnitude mechanical signals are capable of suppressing adipogenesis and adiposity, which is the accumulation of fat tissue in the body (2). In other words, low-magnitude mechanical signals are believed to stimulate osteoblastogenesis, which is the transformation of mesenchymal stem cells into osteoblasts, and bone formation in the weight-breaking skeleton, while simultaneously suppressing adipogenesis, which is the transformation of mesenchymal stem cells into adipocytes and adiposity. However, clinical studies done by Dr. Rubin have shown that compliance is one of the main obstacles in using these mechanical signals as a pharmacological treatment of osteoporosis and obesity. Compliance was shown to be approximately 44% in one of these studies (1). Our design will focus on increasing the compliance rate of the device, by incorporating these mechanical signals with an interactive video game.

References 

1. Rubin et.al. Low-level mechanical signals and their potential as a non-pharmacological interventions for osteoporosis. Age and Aging. 35-S2, ii32-ii36 (2006).

2. Rubin et.al. Adipogenesis is inhibited by brief daily exposure of high-frequency, extremely low-magnitude mechanical signals. Proceedings of the National Academy Sciences (2007).