 Exercise
We all know that the more we exercise our muscles, the stronger they become. The same applies to bones. The fact is that we weren't designed to sit all day at an office desk or spend hours glued to the television. Bones respond to the stresses of exercise by becoming stronger.
Unfortunately, the opposite applies as well, if they are not used, they tend to lose calcium. For this reason, people who are bed bound for long periods are at particular risk of osteoporosis
The best bone-building activities are those that involve putting the weight on our feet and contracting our muscles. The easiest and most obvious way of doing this is by taking long walks.
Regular exercise like this not only slows down bone loss, but has been shown actually to increase bone mass in adults. most of us could walk much more than we do. How often do you take the stairs rather than the escalator or lift?
And how often do you choose to walk to a destination half a mile away, rather than taking the easy way out, in the car?
Tennis, jogging, dancing, cycling or keep-fit classes are all useful bone strengtheners. So is gardening, if you avoid putting too much strain on your back. Steady exercise every day does more good than playing an energetic game of squash on Monday and spending the rest of the week trying to get over it!
But taking exercise to extremes has the opposite effect. Marathon runners and women ballet dancers have been shown to have less calcium in their bones than the rest of us. Excessive exercise alters the hormonal balance of the body and less oestrogen is produced. One sign that this is happening is the loss of menstrual periods. This is even more likely if you are dieting stringently. And another potentially bone-breaking habit is smoking because the effects of tobacco alter our hormonal balance. Excessive alcohol interferes with the action of the liver, preventing the body from metabolising calcium properly. Too much coffee is also believed to be harmful. And large amounts of uncooked bran will push food through the gut before vitamins and minerals can be absorbed.
|
