Bones and Aging

I know I've talked about osteoporosis before. A recent article pointed out that many women who are not Caucasian feel they are not at risk for the disease. This is really a myth. Asian women are the same as Caucasian women in terms of the percent who get osteoporosis. But more importantly, there is a very high percentage of Asian women who have low bone mass putting them at higher risk for the disease.

While the percentage of Hispanic women who get the disease is lower, they still have a fairly high percentage who have low bone mass and are at risk. African Americans have a lower percentage who actually get the disease, but they too have a fairly high percentage with low bone mass.

The ones who often get left out of these statistics are men. There are significant numbers of men who either have osteoporosis or at risk for the disease.

Osteoporosis - Can It Happen To You?

Osteoporosis is one of those diseases which comes on slowly - actually years before we realize that it is happening. As you know I have a real problem with the amount of carbonated beverages we consume in this country. It's not just the sugar, sugar substitutes that are the problem. One of the major problems with carbonated beverages is that they leach calcium out our bones, so the matrix becomes weakened - osteoporosis. When bones become fragile they are more likely to break and more difficult to heal. We tend to think of this as a disease of the elderly because that is when we actually see it.

But the truth is that the disease starts when we are in our teens, twenties and thirties. Did you know that you have your peak bone mass at age 35? It's all down hill from there. So you need to work at keeping your bones strong. But also think about your children. What are you letting them drink? I believe we are going to see way more osteoporosis in the coming years as the baby boomers age. Partly due to the fact that we had no idea what carbonated beverages were doing to our bones when we were young.

What you can do, no matter what age you are is cut out all carbonated beverages. Do weight bearing exercise - walking is a good one.

Fitness Myths and Facts

There are some myths out there around diet and exercise. One of these myths is that we gain body fat as we age and that this is an inevitable fact. While our metabolism does slow down slightly after age 40, the reason that we see people gaining weight after age 40 is not because they are aging. The reason is that those who are gaining weight after 40 do so because they decrease or have no exercise in their life. This will lead to a decrease in muscle mass and an increase in fat mass over time. Incidentally, this decrease in muscle mass and exercise also resulting in a decrease in bone strength as well.

The less muscle mass and bone mass that we have, the fewer calories that we need. Most people do not decrease their caloric intake until they reach their late 80s or 90s. It's interesting, that most people who live into their 90s are not particularly obese. This is because if they were obese earlier in their life and did not do anything about it, they don't live into their 90s.

So to live longer, you want to live stronger. Start now to increase your metabolism with some resistance training at least 2-3 times a week. This will help ward off the osteoporosis issue and increase the muscle mass. Be sure to work all the major muscle groups, legs, arms, back chest and shoulder. Remember that the area that the body tends to deposit fat as we age is in the middle or abdominal area, so keeping this area strong will do a great deal to help you live long and strong.

Tai Chi

I have been talking about exercise recently and someone asked the question about Tai Chi. Tai Chi is a great form of exercise and is sometimes referred to moving meditation. Tai Chi is slow, rhythmic movements that are flowing, circular, and low impact combined with deep breathing. All of this helps balance the mind and the body.

For someone who has had a stroke, Tai Chi can be invaluable in helping these individuals regain some of their balance. This is especially true if the stroke victim is shifting weight, leaning or standing on a movable surface. If Tai Chi is done on a regular basis, it can reduce the risk of falls and injury. The great thing is that it improves circulation, posture, flexibility, blood pressure and heart rate. Tai Chi also reduces pain and stress, increases energy and prevents osteoporosis.

Simple Exercises

I spoke yesterday about walking and that is a great way for you to get started. By the way, walking is considered a weight bearing exercise, so it will help prevent osteoporosis.

There are some other things you may want to consider as far as increasing your strength, range of motion, and cardiovascular endurance. The first thing to remember is not to push yourself to exhaustion. This is not helpful to the body.

Start in small amounts, short periods of time, and progress slowly. This is not a race. Your goal is not to build the biggest muscle in the shortest time.

You can start at home with some simple things using a 15 ounce can of fruit or vegetables. Start by doing 10 repetitions, then a 1 minute rest, 8 repetitions, 1 minute rest, etc. After you have done 4 reps, and 1 minute, do 20 reps and 2 minutes of rest.

More About Lysine

There are more good things about lysine. Researchers have found that lysine not only improves the absorption of calcium in the GI tract, but it also decreases the loss of calcium in the kidney. This is turn may be helpful to improving bone and decreasing osteoporosis.

Researchers have also shown that when lysine combines with arginine, bone building activity increases and collagen is enhanced. So lysine has a 2 fold effect on bones helping to prevent osteoporosis.

Why is Vitamin D so Important?

Some of you may know about the disease called rickets. This is a disease we see in children and it is a result of not enough Vitamin D. In adults what occurs is osteoporosis.

Our bodies breakdown and build bone every day of our lives. If we don't have the right things present for this process like Vitamin D which assists with calcium which helps makes our bones strong, the bones become soft as in rickets, or spongy with a weak bone matrix as in osteoporosis. For adults, osteoporosis is a huge concern as it predisposes us to injuries such as hip fractures. While tend to think this is not as horrible as a heart attack, the fact of the matter is that a hip fracture in someone over 65 leads to complications in about 75% of cases. Of these 75% with complications, 50% will actually die of the complication. So hip fractures in someone over 65 are really not benign.

More on Corn

Yesterday should have put a little fear into you or at least made you think about eating corn and corn based products. How many of you cook with corn oil? Think about it.

There are some other diseases which are increased when a person is eating a mostly corn based diet. Some of these are osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, tooth decay, and anemia. If you look at the health of Native Americans prior to the arrival of Europeans in this country, they had far less disease when their food supply was gathering what was growing naturally on the land and hunting for food in the form of meat from animals. They developed much more disease once they changed their diet to a corn base diet.

Yesterday I mentioned that the high fructose corn syrup caused a high sugar spike. If that sugar is not used by the muscle fairly quickly through some form of exercise, then it is stored as fat.