Dooley Noted: 1/30/16
Lately, I’ve made an observation in the female patients I’ve seen.
I’ve noticed that women in their 70s and 80s seem to report with less osteoporosis than those female patients in their 50s and 60s.
After menopause, women are at risk for loss of bone density, due to the decreased production and release of estrogen.
Women are then under even more demand to increase bone density, and they are encouraged to get scanned for signs of osteopenia and osteoporosis.
By all accounts, I expected the older women to have more bone loss, due to the fact that they spent more years without estrogenic influence on bone.
I also noticed that the younger women took more calcium supplementation than the older women, but the supplementation did not seem to improve their bone density scores.
As I investigated further, I found the women in the younger age groups spent less total time on their feet, doing things that required hard labor. They spent more time working behind a desk and less time on the move.
In order to maintain bone density, the bones need impact to improve and remodel. Sedentary lifestyles will exacerbate bone density loss.
Calcium supplementation will fail to undo a sedentary lifestyle. In fact, it has failed to reduce bone density loss in over 130 studies.
So, why are people still taking calcium supplements, and why is it being promoted by many general practitioners to this day?
Additionally, calcium supplementation has been shown in research to be quite dangerous for aging females, increasing their risk for heart attack and cardiovascular disease.
If you want to increase your bone density, it’s time to put down the calcium and get moving.
Weight bearing exercise will stimulate bone remodeling and save the bone you have.
Get out of the chair.
Don’t accept help to carry things if you don’t need help.
Get walking.
Lift weights.
Demand the bones get dense.
Also, building some quality muscle might protect you from a fracture, should you fall.
As always, it’s your call.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley
Some additional articles on this topic:
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/calcium-supplements-dont-lower-risk-of-bone-fractures-093015
http://www.today.com/health/calcium-supplements-dairy-do-little-protect-bones-t47021
http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/well/2013/04/08/thinking-twice-about-calcium-supplements-2/?referer=