Bone health

THERE IS a link between exercise and osteoporosis. Researchers indicate that exercise, especially weight-bearing exercise, helps the bones to take up more calcium in early life before bone density peaks in the thirties. When you get older, exercise helps to slow down the loss of calcium from the bones. Did you know that most people have five per cent more bone in the arm they use most often? That is a clear-cut illustration of how physical activity increases bone mass. Scientists speculate that the tug of muscles against each patch of bone, boosted by the extra pull of gravity, fires up the bone-building cells in that area.

The benefits of exercise for bone health was also verified by the results of a study, which were published in the Journal of American Medical Associa-tion, December 1994. In the study, a group of postmenopausal women did 40 minutes of high-intensity strength training twice a week and were compared to a similar group of women who maintained their usual level of physical activity. The results showed that the exercise group maintained or increased their bone density while the non-exercise group lost bone density.

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