HEALTHY BONES

Persons doing activities including lifting/maintaining weight and high impact (strength training, running, jumping, dancing etc) normally have a stronger bone structure and density. But, if the diet and energy intake is not enough compared to the use, there is a higher risk to loose bone mass and develop osteoporosis.

What is osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis is a state when the structure in the bone tissue is weakened and this increases the risk of bone fractures. It is possible to measure the density of the bone tissue making a bone mineral density test. Our bone mass is at its maximum peak at the age of 25, from then on it starts reducing. The bone mass loss is difficult to replace, which makes it very important to prevent the loss of bone mass throughout all our life.

Women’s period and the menopause

In women the bone mass loss increases rapidly after the menopause because the levels of estrogens decreases. The estrogen is a hormone which protects the bones from loosing calcium; any kind of drop in the estrogen levels will lead to reduced bone mass. This is very typical in female athletes losing their period or in persons with serious eating disorders, independent of age – which means that osteoporosis does not only happen to old ladies.

Risk factors of getting osteoporosis

Genetic heritage
Higher risk especially for women if their mum or grandmother suffered from osteoporosis.
Diet
Low intake of calcium.
Low intake of vitamin D.
High intake of proteins
Life style habits
Little weight bearing activities or strength training
Smoking
Others
Irregular period
Menopause at early age
Some kind of medicines (for example steroids)
It is not possible to change your genetic heritage, but it is possible to prevent a loss of bone mass making sure you get enough calcium, vitamin D and practicing regular activity with weights or impact.

Calcium and vitamin D reduces and prevents

Our bone mass mostly consists of calcium, that’s why the intake of calcium through the diet is so important. The need of calcium depends on the amount of calcium needed to maintain a healthy bone balance. Normal recommendation for calcium intake is 800 – 900 mg a day, both for men and women, reaching almost 1500 mg a day in female athletes who experience irregularities in their period.
Vitamin D regulates the assimilation of the calcium from the intestines.

Do we get enough through the diet?

Dairy products are the most important sources for calcium; it is therefore almost impossible to reach the levels of recommended amounts of calcium a day without using any kind of dietary supplement. To make sure you cover the daily needs of calcium you can either make sure you have “3 a day” dairy products (one portion being equal to one glass of milk, a yoghurt, or cheese on slice of bread) or you can have any kind of dietary supplement. If you suffer lactose intolerance you should also use a supplement to be able to cover your needs for calcium.

Train to get healthy bones

Athletes normally have a higher bone density than non-active persons; this is because they charge the bones more through the training.
The best activities to avoid loss of bone mass is to do activities where the bones receive weight-loads as in activates
including high impact movements like running, jumping, dancing etc or quite intense strength training. Stuides show that training strength is a very efficient way of preventing loss of bone density. The advantage of the strength training is that you can charge the skeleton on frequently fractured points like hip, forearm and lower part of the back. A program using “heavy” weights is a lot more efficient to prevent osteoporosis than using “easy” weights. If you have no earlier experience training strength, or you are aware that you have a poor bone structure it is important that you get help and advice on training with the right technique to avoid injuries. 

Contact BASE on info@basetraining.com Call + 34 629 086 395. site by www.virtuait.com