Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences Vol. 1(11), pp. 516-525 December 2010          Copyright © 2010 International Research Journals

Review   Postmenopausal/menopause, bone mineral density and whole body vibration: a short review   Nelson S. Pinto1, Milena B. Monteiro2, Sebastião D. Santos-Filho3, Dulciane Paiva4, Tavares, A, Sotiris Missailidis7, Pedro J. Marín8,9,  Mario Bernardo-Filho2, 10   1Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, RN, Brasil. 2Clínica de Fisioterapia e Biomedicina, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. 3Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Instituto de Biologia Roberto Alcantara Gomes, Departamento de Biofísica e Biometria, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. 4RS, 7The Open University, UK, 8Laboratory of Physiology, European University Miguel de Cervantes, Valladolid, Spain. 9Research Center on Physical Disability, ASPAYM, Castilla y León, Spain. 10Coordenadoria de Pesquisa, Instituto Nacional do Câncer, INCa, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.   *Corresponding author E-mail: santos-filho@uerj.br  or sdsfilho@terra.com.br   Received  11 November,2010; Accepted 08 December, 2010   Abstract   The alteration of the bone mineral density (BMD) in the postmenopausal is related directly with the osteoporosis which frequently causes impaired in the physical, psychological and social life of the patients due to possible fractures or pain. Investigations about the effectiveness of the action of the vibration produced in oscillating platforms to treat postmenopausal women would be welcome. The aim of this work is to present a review about the published papers found in the PubMed in which there are information about the use of the whole body vibration (WBV) in postmenopausal women. As the increase of scientific interest in postmenopausal is evident, it was also evaluated, in the PubMed, the number of publications (NP) related with postmenopausal, some modalities of treatment and possible symptoms. The NP found in the PubMed in three keywords that can be used to study phenomena related with old women. It is verified that with the term menopause is found the biggest NP in the PubMed. The symptom with the biggest scientific interest, considering the NP is the hot flashes. A limited NP involving WBV exercises is found, that was bigger with postmenopausal than menopause. It is observed a strong interest in the studies involving osteoporosis and BMD. A small NP in menopause or postmenopausal with keywords involving BMD or osteoporosis and WBV was found. Twenty-six publications were analyzed and thirteen of them were common in at least two analyses. Eight papers were selected to be discussed. In general, all the authors agree that the WBV exercise can be a suitable therapeutic for preventing/reversing sarcopenia and possibly osteoporosis. In conclusion, the use of the PubMed to evaluate the scientific interest in menopause/postmenopausal is important; however the appropriate chose of the keyword is necessary. Although authors have described the relevance of the WBV exercises for the older women in menopause/postmenopausal, a small NP is found.   Keywords: Menopause; bone mineral density; whole body vibration; PubMed.