Osteoporosis

Simple care for osteoporosis

This is one of the easiest diseases to prevent!  Follow these steps to make sure you never have to deal with this nasty, ugly, potentially disabling condition.

1.  Exercise in a weight bearing position.  Astronauts get osteoporosis because there is no weight on their skeletons in space.  Walking, jogging, ballroom dancing, and gymnastics are all great to prevent osteoporosis.  Swimming, while being a great cardiovascular exercise, does not prevent osteoporosis because it's not done in a weight bearing (gravitational) environment.  Get active on your feet!

2.  Drink a glass of milk once per day.  Don't like milk?  Try cheese, yogurt, or ice cream.  These foods are full of calcium.

3.  Eat a leafy green vegetable once per day like a salad.  Lettuce, spinach, kale, and cabbage all contain significant amounts of calcium.  Yes, you can cook them and still get plenty of nutritional value out of it.  It's a myth that cooking destroys all of the nutrition.  There's still plenty of calcium in leafy green vegetables that have been cooked. 

4.  I hate to sound like a TV commercial, but drink a glass of orange juice once per day.  Its got a bunch of calcium in it (and a lot of other stuff that's good for you).  Orange juice is too acidic for your tummy?  Just eat an orange instead.  Grapefruit is good also.

5.  Get out in the sun.  Vitamin D is made by the skin when sunlight hits it.  Just don't overdo the sun exposure!

6.  Take a calcium supplement once per day.  Better yet, take a multivitamin daily.  We have these supplements available here at the clinic.     

7.  Don't expect to get calcium from different antacid medications sold over the counter.  Absorption of calcium only happens in an acidic environment (which antacids help to prevent).  Watch the TV commercials carefully!  The ads only say that there is calcium in the antacids, not that you can actually absorb or utilize the calcium once it's in your stomach along with the medication!

8. Smoking will chase the calcium right out of your bones!  Stop that habit!  NOW!  Besides smoking is nasty and makes you stink!

Don't think you have to complete ALL of the above to prevent osteoporosis.  Simply incorporate into your daily routine several points that are fairly convenient.  Osteoporosis is easy to prevent, but can be very, very difficult to treat once it's present.  And whatever you do, don't skip exercising.  That's just being lazy!