Preserving Your Precious Bones

Your risk for developing osteoporosis increases as you age. Is this something you just have to accept? What can you do to prevent it? This article is going to focus on three defensive actions you can take to preserve your precious bones: Calcium, Vitamin D, and Strength Training.

Calcium:
Calcium is important no matter what your age. Calcium is the most important mineral in regards to building strong bones thus preventing bone diseases such as osteoporosis. Unfortunately, the time in our lives when we could most affect the health of our bones (age 16 through the late twenties), we simply do not think about diseases such as osteoporosis.

Do not fret, however. It is not too late to save your bones. Eat a minimum of two to three servings of calcium rich food per day. Good choices include low-fat milk, yogurt, and cheese. Some dark green, leafy vegetables, canned salmon (with edible bones), tofu made with calcium sulfate, and soy milk fortified with calcium are other good food sources to boost your calcium intake.

The National Institutes of Health recommend that adults over age 65 consume 1500 mg of calcium per day. This amount is difficult to achieve by diet alone for many people. When deciding to take a calcium supplement, you should first consider how many of the above foods (high in calcium) are in your diet every day. If you are getting in two to three servings per day, you should consider taking 500 mg per day. If you eat less than two servings per day, consider taking 1000 to 1200 mg on a daily basis.

When is the best time to take calcium? The “best” time is when you remember it! To optimize calcium absorption, take it between meals. Calcium can bind with other nutrients in food.

Vitamin D:
Vitamin D is important to bone health because it helps deposit calcium into the bones. The body actually manufacturers vitamin D from sunlight thus it is known as the “sunshine vitamin”. To get the amount of vitamin D required by the body to maintain strong bones, you only need to spend 10 minutes per day or 20 to 30 minutes two to three times per week. This, however, does not apply if you follow the recommendations to protect your skin from the sun with sunscreen. Additionally, as you age your body’s ability to make vitamin D decreases. And – if your skin is dark pigmented, your body does not readily make vitamin D.

What foods contain vitamin D? Fortified milk, cereals, and supplements are the best sources. You should get 200 IU per day.

Strength Training:
In the past, older adults were cautioned against lifting weights or performing weight-bearing exercises. A true shame, really. We now know that strength training and other weight-bearing exercises actually help deposit calcium back into the bone. The most important form of exercise for older adults is strength training. Your exercise regimen should include more and more strength training exercises as you age. When you were young, the majority of your exercise regimen should have consisted of aerobic exercise. Not now. Get some dumbbells that are light in weight for home, join the YMCA, a local gym, whatever it takes to get you lifting weights.

Before beginning any exercise program, get approval from your doctor. You should then start off working with a personal trainer who can show you proper technique and form. It is not necessary to lift heavy weights. With the amount of weight you use, you should be able to lift it 10 to 12 times – feeling fatigued towards the last few repetitions. For each exercise, do two to three sets. Walking is a good exercise to incorporate as it provides aerobic exercise (still necessary) and is weight-bearing for the lower body.

So get to lifting those weights and getting in that calcium and vitamin D. Preserve your bones and improve your quality of life!

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Even when we try to eat well, we're disadvantaged. The nutritional content of most food has been compromised over the years, not only by deficient soils and modern production, transportation, storage and processing methods, but also by the enormous amounts of chemical and artificial substances added to promote growth, storage life, taste and appearance.

It's for this reason that more and more medical authorities are advocating the use of vitamin and mineral supplements. However, finding them in the right combination can be both confusing and costly.
The nutrition products I am going to recommend you make use of knowledge gained from the botanical world's 6,000 year history. They incorporated health building nutritional herbs with the best modern technology to help our bodies cleanse and detoxify so that the cells - the tiniest living units - can be as fully nourished as possible.
This allows the cells to grow, repair and to perform their functions with the best possible efficiency so that we feel and look better and are more able to prevent and fight disease. Once the body begins to clear itself of toxins it can more efficiently absorb nutrition.

Further reading through our articles on health issues will give you a body of information that will help you decide what options you have to deal with the underlying causes of your problem through giving your body the nutrition products that will assist you body to heal from the inside out.



You can visit our health food products page here: Herbalife Health Nutrition Supplements and learn more about our core nutrition program, the Cellular Nutrition Advanced Program and also check out these targeted products, Florafiber to replace your healthy flora and Aloe Vera Juice to help cleanse your system.

We wish you well in your search for solutions to this problem and your movement towards better health in all areas.




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