Strong Bones and Bone Health

Exercise does more than just burn fat; it’s also great for your bones. Why does exercise help your bones? Read on.

Bones loss leading to osteoporosis and fractures is the great leveler of persons over sixty. A broken hip in old age is no joke and you can even die from it. That they can be caused by a minor fall is often not well understood.

But anyone who has been around old people has noticed that some just seem so fragile – like an egg shell. In this case, looks are not deceiving. In some individuals, their bones are paper thin in critical areas and they must take great care – even a slight misstep could spell disaster.

How do we get to this stage? We certainly don’t start out that way. As children, our bones are both resistant and flexible requiring serious impacts to break them.

As we grow older – into our teens and twenties - the bones harden to make an incredibly strong and light framework that will withstand enormous stress without breaking. Then, something happens and – starting in our mid thirties – we begin a bone loss slide that only ends when we die.

There is nothing, unfortunately, that halts this bones loss trend. You can however, slow the process and in your formative years, make sure you pack on as much solid bone as possible by exercising.

Exercise

Experts recommend getting plenty of exercise which will cause the bones to thicken in response to the added stress. Resistance exercise is best since it provides the greatest amount of pressure on the bones which forces them to grow, but load bearing exercises like running, team sports and aerobics also help to form strong bones.

Hormones

Men and women produce bone according to their levels of sex hormones and the loss of these can cause problems.

Testosterone helps build stronger and bigger bones more in men than in women. But if testosterone levels fall as a man ages, bone loss can become a problem.

Estrogen also helps protect and maintain bone. At menopause - when estrogen levels decline - bone loss increases rapidly. In fact, women can lose up to 20% of their bone mass in the five to seven years after menopause.

Women are also at extra risk for bone loss while they are pregnant or nursing. If women don't get enough calcium each day, the body takes what it needs for the baby's growth from the mother's bones – her natural storehouse of calcium.

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