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Preventing Osteoporosis
By: Kim Beardsmore
Last month my 74-year-old mother while walking, tripped on a small tuft of grass, fell - and broke her rib! Her recovery has been painful, debilitating and at times depressing. It also affected my elderly father who relies heavily on her day to day.
Surprisingly, this instance of fracture was not due to osteoporosis. However my mom's experience caused me stop and think deeply. As a 40-something woman, am I doing everything possible to keep my skeletal system in tip-top condition?
Once we get past the inevitable scrapes of childhood, during our middle years we don't give too much thought to our bones. We understand that bones make up our structural frame, but we tend to think of our bones like the frame of a house. Supporting and rigid, and that's it.
The truth of it is that bone is an active, living tissue. Bone is constantly changing, undergoing synthesis and remodeling itself. Like all other bodily tissue, bone is totally dependent on many different micronutrients and enzymes for optimum bone function and health.
Unfortunately the typical western diet is now so heavily weighted with white flours, refined sugars and fats it is deplete of many of the micronutrients required for healthy bones.
There are other aspects of concern with the typical western diet. Do you regularly drink carbonated beverages? Did you know that carbonated drinks increase the body's intake of phosphorus - which, in turn, decreases our absorption of calcium. Decreased absorption of calcium can lead to an unhealthy, nutrient-starved skeletal system. And in time this can lead to osteoporosis.
Whilst calcium is necessary, it is not the only critical micronutrient for healthy bones. Make sure your diet has an adequate supply of magnesium, zinc, silicon, boron, folic acid, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, Manganese, vitamin K, vitamin D and magnesium. These trace elements are important and many of us are not getting them from our regular food consumption patterns. For instance, the Journal of Nutritional Medicine reports between 80 to 85 per cent of Americans consume a magnesium-deficient diet!
The good news is that if many of us with diet deficiencies which may have impacted our bone health, can improve our situation with a few lifestyle adjustments. Medical evidence supports an improvement in bone density where people make lifestyle changes to incorporate weight bearing exercise, a diet more rich in fresh fruit and vegetables, complemented with high quality nutritional supplements.
Why wait until you bones start breaking before you think about ensuring a healthy skeletal system? Have a look at good quality nutritional supplementation .
(c) Copyright Kim Beardsmore
ATTENTION: WEBMASTERS AND EZINE PUBLISHERS
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.
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About The Author
Kim Beardsmore, B.Sc, (Biochemistry) is a successful wellness consultant and assists people lose weight and keep it off! To see what you can do to take control of your weight, visit her website at http://leanmachine.org/?refid=osteo-16274.
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This article was posted on October 15, 2004
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How to Benefit from the Mind-Body Connection
(excerpt)
You are about to gain insight into the
mind-body connection. The number of
people who truly understand these principles on our
planet are relatively few.
There is an undeniable connection between our minds and
bodies, you can learn
to use this fact to your benefit.
Dr. Bernie Siegel, author of "Love, Medicine and
Miracles" was once a
distraught cancer surgeon until he
began to understand the greater principles
of the mind-
body connection. He felt dragged down by the artificial
barriers
that existed between patient and doctor, and the
helplessness he often felt as
a result of his inability
to effectively serve those patients. Eventually, those
barriers
were disintegrated by Dr. Siegel's recognition
and growing understanding of the
mind-body connection and
how it could serve his patients and himself.
Dr. Siegel, or Bernie as he began to have his patients
refer to him, had some
startling realizations as a cancer surgeon. He found that
there were actually
quite a few people in the world that successfully beat
the statistics on cancer
survival. He began to recognize that a patient's ability
to defeat something as
serious as cancer had to do with the patient's mind and
attitude about their
disease.
If you would like to see the rest of
this article, please go here:
http://www.tobeinformed.com/repository/mind-body.html
copyright 2004 - David Snape
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