Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Osteoporosis

A few facts:

  •  Osteoporosis is often referred to as a "silent disease".
  •  The National Osteoporosis Foundation  reports that 10 million Americans  have osteoporosis.       
  •  Twenty percent are men.
  •  Thirty-three percent of men over 75 have osteoporosis.

There are things you can do to give yourself a break from osteoporosis.
 1. Know your risk factors. There are some you can't do anything about such as being female and Caucasian or Asian.  There are some that you have some control over such as not getting enough calcium and vitamin D and too much smoking. Check out the National Osteoporosis Foundation for a complete list of risk factors and some good information to use moving forward.
2. Exercise.  There it is again.
3. Eat a healthy diet. 
4. If you smoke, QUIT!! If you drink alcohol, go easy. Not more than one 5 ounce glass of wine for women, 2 for men, or 1 ounce of 86 proof liquor daily (whatever that is) is the rule to follow. 


Resources: National Osteoporosis Foundation
"The BEST Exercise Program for Osteoporosis Prevention" by  Timothy Lohman, PhD, Scott Going, PhD, Linda Houtkooper, PhD, RD, Lauve Metcalfe, MS, Terri Antoniotti-Guido, PT, Vanessa A. Stanford, MS, RD