May is National Osteoporosis Month…
I recently spent a 3 day weekend at
a large fitness conference. The founder
of this conference, recently had a trip and fall accident, fracturing her jaw
and losing teeth. This is a superfit
lady in her 50s, so what are the rest of us less fit maturing Baby Boomers to
do? Prevention needs to start early, so the
following information really applies to anyone over the age of 30.
What is it? Osteoporosis
literally means “porous bones” and is diagnosed when too much bone structure is
loss, or when you make too little bone.
This results in weaker, more brittle bone, which can result in fractures
from minor falls, or even sneezing.
Risk Factors Do
you know the risk factors for osteoporosis?
Did you know that over 20 million broken bones occur each year in the US
due to osteoporosis? Its not just elderly women who suffer from
osteoporosis. Female athletes who train
so hard as to lose their monthly period, and older men are also at risk. Often fractures will be treated and heal, but
the patient does not get screened for osteoporosis. The National Osteoporosis Foundation would
like this to change.
UncontrollableFactors
The risk factors that you cannot
influence, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation are:
- Being over age 50
- Being female
- Menopause
- Family history of osteoporosis
- Low body weight/being small &
thin
- Broken bones or height loss
Controllable Factors These you can influence by your lifestyle choices:
- Not getting enough calcium &
vitamin D
- Not eating enough fruits &
vegetables
- Getting too much protein, sodium
& caffeine
- Having an inactive lifestyle
- Smoking
- Drinking too much alcohol
- Losing weight
- Medications & disease can
also cause bone loss, increasing your risk levels.
Economic Costs – Some Facts & Figures
With 70 million Baby Boomers
turning age 65 by 2030, fitness & medical professionals are starting to
wake up. The 85 years & older segment is the
fastest growing population segment. The
direct medical costs from older adult falls in 2013, was $34 billion. One in three adults aged 65 and older fall
each year with 20-30% suffering moderate to severe injuries. Annually there are 2.5 million nonfatal fall
injuries necessitating an ER visit.
These numbers are expected to increase as Baby Boomers age.
Its Not Hopeless!! While one
cannot prevent aging or randomness from happening, there is quite a bit one can
do to be proactive. As always, in an
evolving field, the research is incomplete.
A little background first….
Balance – Or equilibrioception is defined by
exercise physiologists as the physiologic ability to keep yourself upright when
walking or standing still. It’s not just one body system
that can be labeled “balance”. Many body
systems work together to keep us vertical.
Balance – Or equilibrioception, which is defined by
exercise physiologists as the physiologic ability to keep yourself upright when
walking or standing still.
It’s not just one body system
that can be labeled “balance”. Many body
systems work together to keep us vertical.
First there’s the eyes or visual system. Then there are the ears or vestibular system.
These two work together to help us keep objects in focus when our head
is moving. If you’ve ever had a problem
with your inner ears or vestibular system, you know that you may lose your
balance easily. And if you’ve ever walked down a dark hallway, you may have
also noticed that your body moves less surely when you aren’t sure what’s
ahead.
There’s also proprioception, which is our body’s sense of where we are in
space. Nerve endings in our feet and
skin send messages to the brain which work with our muscles and bones, to
adjust body position to movement. These
tend to deteriorate as we age but practicing balance has been shown to help. Brain
surgery, Meniere’s disease, an ear infection, blows to the head or a bad head
cold can also disrupt one’s sense of balance.
Dizziness, disorientation and nausea can follow, perhaps precipitating a
fall.
Adapt a Healthy lifestyle Fall
prevention starts with a healthy lifestyle.
Proper diet, avoiding smoking & too much alcohol, and improving muscle
strength, endurance, as well as flexibility all can have beneficial effects. Since fractures are an adverse outcome to
falls, maintaining healthy bones and preventing osteoporosis should be a
priority for older adults & professionals who work with them.
Put It In The Bank
We have maximal bone density in our thirties. After about age 35, we start to lose more
bone than we can build. We start drawing
from our calcium bank, so to speak. By
age 60, if we do not exercise and eat calcium rich diets, we can lose up to 30%
of our bone mass. Attention to diet, calcium intake
and exercise should start in the early decades.
Since osteoporosis is a silent condition until a fracture occurs, one
needs to pay attention to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
A Healthy Diet with adequate levels of calcium, Vitamin D, and
other bone building nutrient is important. Find out what those levels are here in this CDC fact sheet.
Exercise – it is
the pull of muscle against bones that keep the bones strong. Use it or lose it definitely applies here. The exercise should be weight bearing &
muscle strengthening. Resistance
exercise of any kind – whether the resistance is provided by actual weights
such as dumbbells, machines, elastic resistance such as tubing or bands or even
body weight work the best to build muscle and therefore bone. Although it may seem like it's impossible to stem the progress of osteoporosis, I have had clients maintain their bone densities and even improve them slightly with a regular resistance training program.
Weight bearing exercise also includes
dancing, hiking, high impact aerobics, jogging, running, jump rope, stair
climbing & tennis. Lower impact
exercise would be to use an elliptical trainer, perform low impact aerobics, or
fast walking on a treadmill or outdoors.
Swimming & biking don’t quality, I’m afraid, as providing enough
resistance.
How Much Exercise Do You Need? In general,
weight bearing exercise should be performed for 30 minutes most days of the
week. Muscle building exercise is
recommended 2 or 3 times a week.
Balance, posture & functional exercise can be done every day. Here are some exercise examples that can be done at home.
Many exercise physiologists are now providing Fall Prevention classes but a class that encompasses all the facets of balance are still difficult to find. I have
taught such a class at senior retirement facilities and locally at Mission Hills Athletic Club . My classes contain the following
elements to provide a well rounded progressive program.
Posture & Flexibility Development
– poor posture and limited range of motion can contribute to falls. It has been found particularly that
maintaining ankle flexibility & hip abductor/adductor is important.
Functional Exercises – help
with how you move in every day living.
Can you still stand on one leg to put on your pants? Can you get up out of chair or climb a set of
stairs easily? Can you lift your
knee/leg high enough to avoid tripping?
Balance Exercises – help
strengthen leg & core muscles. These
should be both stationary (one leg stances), and moving (we don’t usually fall
when standing still). I like to
incorporate various balance challenges (balance pillows, balance beams, BOSU,
half foam rollers) on varied equipment and situations (one leg, eyes closed,
moving, darkened room, carrying large loads, and so forth). Over the course of 6 or 8 weeks, I am able to
progress the challenges, and the improvement is noticeable both to me & my
clients. Practice is necessary so there’s
always “homework” which can be worked into your daily activities with a little
planning.
Strength Training - strong muscles make all of the above easier,
and help maintain muscle & bone mass.
We start by following the BEST protocol developed by Arizona State
University and which is customized for you.
This is just an overview of a
complex topic - several blog posts could be written for more complete coverage.
Better Bones & Balance For those of you in the Tri City area, a new class will start in May. For a free consultation, more information, or
questions & comments, please contact judy@fitness-spark.biz. For details on the class, which is open to the community, please call
Christina at Mission Hills Athletic Club, at 656-2250.
References
Statistics - World Wide ©Fitness Spark Personal Training, March, 2015.
Arsenic & Cheap Wine? Here's more detail for the CBS report on excessive levels of arsenic in cheap wines.
The list consists of wines tested by Kevin Hicks of Beverage Grades. Beverage Grades offers quality testing to
wineries, and guess who stands to benefit if wine has to be tested for arsenic
levels? The website itself was set up by
attorneys associated with the lawsuit so take the information on it with a
grain of salt.
*Arsenic occurs
naturally in the soil. It can come from
soil that’s been under cultivation for awhile due to past pesticide use.
*Some testing by independent
labs for retailers are coming up with much lower values that Beverage
Grades. Some are below the EPA
standards.
What’s The Best Biceps Curl? For those trying for bigger “guns”, have
better looking arms, or just want to use their time the most efficiently,
should take a look at this American Council On Exercise article on a study they commissioned. The concentration curl beat
out 6 other biceps variations. It
isolates the biceps so that there is maximal biceps activation. To see how to do it properly, click here. And for a Shoulder & Biceps Routine that hits all the muscle groups, try this one.
