Is Weight Loss Harmful for Skeletal Health in Obese Older Adults?
A healthy diet preserves bone strength by providing key nutrients such as potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, and — of course — calcium and vitamin D. If you don't get enough calcium, your body will take it from your bones. If your diet doesn't supply enough calcium 1, to 1, milligrams per day , take a supplement.
The same goes for vitamin D, which is needed to extract calcium from your food. Food sources of vitamin D are limited, and you may not get enough sun to manufacture adequate amounts through the skin. Experts recommend to 1, IU of vitamin D per day women being treated for vitamin D deficiency take much higher amounts.
According to the National Osteoporosis Foundation, vitamin D 3 cholecalciferol is the form that best supports bone health. To learn more about other nutrients that affect bone health, visit www. Two types of exercise — weight-bearing and resistance — are particularly important for countering osteoporosis. Weight-bearing activities are those in which your feet and legs bear your full weight.
This puts stress on the bones of your lower body and spine, stimulating bone cell activity. Weight-bearing exercise includes running, jogging, brisk walking, jumping, playing tennis, and stair climbing.
Top Trends
Resistance exercise — using free weights, rubber stretch bands, or the weight of your own body as in sit-ups and push-ups — applies stress to bones by way of the muscles. It's especially helpful for strengthening bones of the upper body that don't bear much weight during everyday activities.
Merely occasional exercise won't help, though. Aim for at least 30 minutes of bone-strengthening exercise most days of the week. If you have osteoporosis or another pre-existing health condition, consult a clinician about whether you should avoid certain activities, positions, or movements.
Osteoporosis - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic
Bone continually undergoes a process called remodeling, or bone turnover, which has two distinct stages: resorption breakdown and formation. Bone is a storage depot for calcium. When the body needs calcium, bone cells called osteoclasts attach to the bone surface and break it down, leaving small cavities A. Bone-forming cells called osteoblasts move into these cavities B , releasing collagen and other proteins to stimulate bone mineralization and replace what was lost.
The osteoblasts that become incorporated in the new bone matrix are called osteocytes C. Early in life, bone formation outpaces resorption. By age 20, most of us have the greatest amount of bone tissue we'll ever have peak bone mass.
Weight loss linked to bone loss in middle aged women
Bone mass declines very slowly until late perimenopause, when bone loss becomes more rapid, due in part to decreased estrogen, a crucial player in bone turnover. Also, after age 50 to 60 our bodies are less able to absorb calcium and produce vitamin D. We continue to lose bone, though more slowly, for the rest of our lives. Here's yet one more reason not to smoke: Women who smoke lose bone faster, reach menopause two years earlier, and have higher postmenopausal fracture rates. The mechanism isn't known; smoking may lower estrogen levels, or it may interfere with the absorption of calcium and other important nutrients.
To screen for osteoporosis, clinicians measure bone mineral density BMD — the amount of calcium and other minerals in bone. The best way to assess fracture risk is to calculate BMD at the spine and hip with low-dose x-rays dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, or DXA and factor in a woman's age.
Calculate your body mass index (BMI)
The World Health Organization's definition of osteoporosis is based on a DXA value called a T-score, which compares the amount of bone a woman has to normal peak bone mass. Most official guidelines recommend DXA screening for all women starting at age 65, and earlier for women who take medications or have health conditions that increase osteoporosis risk. But reduced BMD is only one risk factor for osteoporosis. You're also at greater risk if you smoke or are older, Caucasian, or thin, or if you had a fracture after age 50 or have a parent who had a hip fracture.
The World Health Organization has developed a formula that predicts year fracture risk based on BMD and other risk factors. A calculator based on this formula is available at courses. Clinicians are also interested in bone quality — a complex characteristic that includes bone mineralization, microarchitecture, and the rate of bone turnover.
So far, we have no way to noninvasively assess bone quality, but new imaging technologies are being developed that may allow clinicians to visualize the internal structure of bone and gain information that was once available only through biopsy. Most approved osteoporosis drugs see sidebar are antiresorptive, that is, they slow resorption, the breakdown phase of bone turnover.
Only one drug, parathyroid hormone Forteo , is anabolic, meaning that it stimulates new bone formation. All medications have side effects, and dosing schedules vary from one to the other, so it's important to explore all the options with your clinician. One adverse effect of bisphosphonates — death of jawbone tissue, usually after dental extractions or oral surgery — has occurred extremely rarely in women taking bisphosphonates for osteoporosis. It mostly has affected cancer patients, who take far higher bisphosphonate doses, usually intravenously.
Several osteoporosis drugs are under investigation, including the mineral strontium in the form of strontium ranelate, and denosumab, a monoclonal antibody that works by blocking osteoclasts, the cells that resorb bone.
They are also at a critical age of bone building, so severe weight loss could lead to estrogen deficiency and cessation of menstruation. This could cause serious damage to their bone health. Remember: A healthy eating plan coupled with exercise will help you reach your weight loss goal and preserve your bones! Hope you enjoyed this article. We would love to hear your feedback and comments regarding this feature.
- You may be losing bone when you lose weight;
- reduce face fat weight lifting;
- Browse by Topic?
- NCBI - WWW Error Blocked Diagnostic;
- Aging and Bone Loss?
- Your Changing Bones?
Would you like to leave us a review? Search Please wait. Or Login Using Facebook. Create New Account. Choose File. Reset Password Username or email address. Nutrition Articles Women Wellness.
How does an unbalanced diet affect bone health? Skipping meals: most people when they want to cut down on their calories start skipping meals. Usually the first meal to go is breakfast, the meal that is usually packed with calcium Calorie restriction: Recent studies found a direct link between severe calorie restriction and osteoporosis. Following an extreme weight loss diet for as little as five months caused significant bone loss.
Unbalanced food groups: Most of these extreme fad diets are based on the consumption of certain food groups for a prolonged period of time. These diets are very low in calories, and most of the time deficient in certain types of nutrients.