Can you tell me how to prevent osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis or porous bone is a known word to many now as the advertisements for the calcium supplements with vitamin D reaches all television watchers in our world. Bone is a living tissue and the disease caused by low bone mass and loss of bone tissue is osteoporosis. With osteoporosis you have increased risk for hip, spine and wrist fracture. It is because osteoporosis makes the bone fragile. The peak bone density is reached at approximately 30 years of age and so the damage begins much earlier.

It is not only a old women’s disease as many think. Men suffer also from osteoporosis. There are two million men suffer osteoporosis in the United States of America. Enough calcium intakes from food and an optimum calcium metabolism can prevent osteoporosis. It is important to build strong bones in young ages so that osteoporosis has no chance in later life. Young ages mean during childhood and adolescence are the best time to build strong bones. This is the best osteoporosis prevention method later in life.

The important steps to prevent osteoporosis include:

• Eat the right diet for you. It must be rich in calcium and vitamin D. Consult your dietician to take the optimum food. Maintain your normal weight. It is dangerous to have below your ideal weight.

• Physical activity like walking, jogging, running, climbing stairs, playing tennis and other similar sports, dancing and jumping rope is good. If you do this for the first time consult with your doctor.

• Weight lifting and weight machines in gym clubs. If you do this for the first time consult with your doctor.

• No smoking and other tobacco products – nicotine inhibits the bone protective effect of estrogen in women. The menopause sets earlier and thus the risk for osteoporosis. Disturbs the calcium absorption from the food.

• No excessive alcohol intake

• Take calcium and vitamin D supplements, if necessary

All these precautions are important and there is no compromise. Parents must inform the children and adolescents the importance of good food and exercise. Once understood properly they have no problem to follow that. This is my personal experience.

Prevention is better than cure. It is in your hands to be healthy. It is not advisable to consume too much processed foods, fast foods and junk foods.

Menopause – Symptoms and Treatments...

Menopause occurs when the ovaries naturally decreases the production of the sex hormones estrogens and progesterone. If there are no menstrual periods for 12 consecutive months without any other biological or physiological cause then the woman is in menopause. Menopause is the end of the childbearing years. The 12 months without periods are important to note, otherwise there is still a chance to become pregnant.

A woman can feel the changes in her body if she is approaching menopause. In this period of menopause transition or perimenopause her menstrual periods start changing. The changes begin several years before the menopause. This is because of the fluctuation of the production of the sexual hormones by the aging ovaries. Irregularity in the length of the period, the time between periods and the level of flow can be seen in the irregular periods. A sudden warm feeling with blushing, the hot flashes can also accompany the irregular periods.

The changes associated with the menopause include:

• Hot flashes
• Irregular bleeding
• Night sweats
• Mood swings
• Forgetfulness
• Problems in sleeping
• Tiredness
• Irritability
• Memory problems
• Depression
• Fluctuation in sexual desire
• Vaginal dryness, itching or irritation
• Increased risk of urinary tract infection or urinary incontinence, leakage of urine
• Weight gain
• Changes in skin texture including wrinkles
• May have some hair growth on the chin, upper lip, chest or abdomen
• Can worsen adult acne

Woman’s race, height, number of children or use of oral contraceptives has no influence on the age at menopause. The age of menopause is variable. It is 40 to 60 years normally. For most of the women it is between 45 to 55 years.

Menopause is not a disease that needs to be cured and it is a natural life-stage transition. However, treatment of associated symptoms is possible if these become substantial or severe. But, the protective effect of estrogen against osteoporosis and atherosclerosis is lost. The risks of fracture and coronary heart disease increase.

The possible treatments include:

• Hormone therapy or hormone replacement therapy or postmenopausal hormone therapy with estrogen and progesterone
• Oral contraceptive pills
• Vaginal hormone and non-hormone treatments

Combination of estrogen and progesterone increases the risk for heart attack, stroke and breast cancer compared with women without hormone therapy. Estrogen therapy increases the risk for stroke and endometrial cancer, cancer of the lining of the uterus. You must consult with your doctor and he must consider your entire medical records as well as hereditary risk factors before deciding hormone therapy.

The alternative therapy uses food and herbs and they include:

• Phytoestrogens from soy bean, chick peas and lentils. Do not use the concentrated pills, but foods containing these must be eaten regularly
• Vitamin E also helps to reduce hot flashes
• Black Cohosh herbal preparations
• Green tea and pomegranate
• Dried roots and rhizomes of Licorice
• Roots of Dong quai
• Wild yam
• Dried fruit of Chaste tree
• Dried leaves of Damiana
• Leaves, roots and tops of Dandelion
• Dried roots and rhizomes of False unicorn root
• Leaves of Ginkgo
• Roots of Ginseng, avoid if you have high blood pressure
• Dried Liferoot plant
• Fresh or dried leaves and fruit of Raspberry
• Red clover, dried flower heads and fresh plant
• Fresh or dried leaves of Sage
• St. John’s Wort, fresh or dried flowering plant

There are not many scientific studies about the alternative therapies. Much more research is still needed.

There is a direct relationship between the lack of estrogen after menopause and the development of osteoporosis. Eat healthy food with enough calcium and vitamin D. Ask your doctor whether calcium and vitamin D must be supplemented or for other treatments. A good lifestyle and enough physical activity are very important.

What are the symptoms of Magnesium deficiency?

Magnesium is a very important mineral for our metabolism. More than 300 enzymes in the body contain magnesium.

The symptoms of magnesium deficiency include:

• Fatigue and weakness
• Loss of appetite
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Muscle contraction and cramps
• Seizures
• Abnormal heart rhythms
• Coronary spasms
• Nervousness
• Sleeplessness
• Premenstrual syndrome worsens
• Osteoporosis risk is increased

Asthma, migraines, headaches, depression, fibromyalgia, anxiety, arthritis, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and kidney stones get worse due to magnesium deficiency.

What are the consequences of osteoporosis?

There will be increased risk of fracture with minor falls. With increasing age, from day to day works like bending and lifting, the frequency of falls may lead to pain and other physical problems.

The risk of hip fracture is the worst because it affects the quality of life and more often it leads to death in women above 75 years old. About 35% of the women recover or regain their pre-fracture quality of good life. During the sickness, fear, anxiety and depressions are the symptoms along with the suffering of their families.

Imagine, a woman lives alone in Europe or in North America without family members, or the family members have no time because of their job or children, then old age home with medical care is the only alternative and the stress produced from the loss of her home and her personal environment, may increase, the chance of premature death. Here, I do not want to write about the happenings with such persons in the old age homes throughout the world.

Above all, you are lucky if you or your family are financially sound, otherwise the situation is catastrophe. Dear, young readers, by doing several things like good nutrition, enough physical activity, good observation in the families and a good family doctor who can take enough time for you, you can avoid this disease.

Physical activities such as walking, jogging, swimming or gymnastic are very useful to prevent the disease. The human beings are made to move always, but unfortunately mostly you cannot wander during your work or job. Do not work more than 8 to 10 hrs in your office so that you get more time for your physical activity. We work to live, but not live only to work.

The good food intake is throughout the life important. Fresh vegetables, fruits, fish and lean meat are good. One must be careful with calcium supplement and it is better to consult your doctor before that.

What is osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis is a skeletal disorder characterized by a thinned and weakened bone which increases the risk of fracture. Bone density informs about your bone strength and demineralization of the bones causes osteoporosis.

Simple falls can make an osteoporotic bone more susceptible to fracture.

Primary osteoporosis can occur both in men and women, but more common in postmenopausal women and men get it normally when they are old.

Secondary osteoporosis is due to deficiencies or too much of hormones, steroid medication and chronic illness and there may be more other reasons which we may not know now.

The most important here is not the bone density or daily bone loss but the balance between bone formation and loss.

Calcium, vitamin D and estrogens play a vital role in osteoporosis. Healthy food, good lifestyle and physical activity is important to prevent it.

Could diet and weight reduction affect bone density?

This is one of the most frequently asked questions from women in the Western countries. They worry not about their health, but of afraid of osteoporosis in later years.

The studies show that there are no adverse effects between diet and bone mass density. Both, the diet group and the control group have no change in their bone mass density.

The important things they should keep in mind are the diet should not be extreme. Their food must contain enough nutrients and calories. Crash weight reductions are bad, but 2 to 4 kgs in a month is considered good. Your diet plan must give you the possibility to eat many foods. Our metabolism based individual diet plan is tailor-made for you. Visit www.aaronverlag.com

I am a 61 years old lady; could gym help to improve my bone mass density?

Gym or any physical activity is important for women above 60. These are as good as calcium Intake. For our health physical activity is very important.

Studies have shown that even the affected bone has also improved its density after regular gym or sport. It should be recommended to all women. This is the best to prevent osteoporosis.

If not possible to go to gymnastics, try 30 min quick walking, bicycling or swimming.

Are there any heavy metal pollutants in mother’s milk?

We belong to countries where cadmium, lead and mercury are present in breast milk and things must be avoided to reduce the contamination of these metals from water and food. The other two metals found are arsenic and manganese.

Most of the countries have banned lead from petrol and lead pipes in the houses. These have reduced the amount of lead in breast milk. Cadmium is accumulated quickly in the kidneys, thus only in low levels in blood as well as in breast milk are present. The prenatal trans-placental exposure to an infant is a much greater concern. Drinking water can be a source of heavy metal exposure. Methyl mercury comes from fishes and cadmium exposure from shell- fish is high. The baby instant food is a source of exposure for many metals including cadmium, aluminium and others.

Tobacco smoke contains also cadmium.

The millions of small batteries what we use and throw also contain lot of poisonous trace elements like lead, cadmium, etc. If possible use only rechargeable batteries.

Energy saving bulbs contains mercury and all these wastes are normally special poisonous wastes which should be destroyed in a careful way. Here recycling means getting raw materials from the poisonous waste.

Thermo papers for your laser printer contain mercury.

Lead salts with other salts are added with paints to make them dry quickly. Lead salts are sweet and the children like this taste and lick them. Observe them when they stand near the painted windows.

Reduce known exposure to poisonous metals as for as possible.

Is breast milk free of pollutants, toxins and heavy metals?

It is not pure and can contain several chemicals residues and few heavy metals. Still, our recommendation is to breastfeed as long as you can because the advantages are more than the disadvantages.
All the breast milks in this world contain residues of DDT or their metabolites, other pesticide residues and pollutant toxins such as dioxins. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polychlorinated dibenzofuranes (PCDFs), polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs) and polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs) are also often present. These are accumulated in the fat of the human beings. The simple way to minimise this risk is to increase the weight of the mother so that more body fat is available for the same amount of chemical residues in her body, thus the fat of the breast milk also contains less pesticide residues. This should be carefully planned with the help of your doctor and dietician because factors such as pregnancy high blood pressure and diabetes must be considered very cautiously.

Diet is a main factor which influences breast milk levels of persistent organic pollutants which come from fish consumption or living near agricultural land where pesticides and other chemicals are indiscriminately used.

Could you compare the situation in India and Germany?

In India doctors advise working mothers to breastfeed for at least for 6 months. But it is difficult for the working mothers here – they cannot get six months leave because of several reasons. This gives them and the babies many problems.

In Germany the situation is entirely different. The mothers’ jobs are protected from the law for 36 months. This means a mother can decide how long she would stay with her child. Within 36 months she could join at any time without problems. For the first year they get financial support from the government. This is called the so called “Baby Year” in Germany. Now-a-days there are husbands who opt for this “Baby year”. The reason is the far better income of the wife.

With all these facilities a German mother breastfeeds her child normally for four months.

What is the recommendation for breastfeeding?

The World Health Organization (WHO) urges its member states to strengthen activities “to protect, promote and support exclusive breastfeeding for six months as a global public health recommendation and to provide safe and appropriate complementary foods, with continued breastfeeding for up to two years of age or beyond”. It is because of the fact that breast milk provides the most complete form of nutrition for infants, protects from chronic diseases like asthma and diabetes. The benefits to the mother are the improvement of maternal health through the physiologic responses associated with breastfeeding. The German mothers breastfeed their infants normally for four months.

My personal opinion is 12 months. Such children have no or fewer allergies. Allergies are one of the biggest health problems today. If you have allergies your life quality comes down drastically. Why not 12 months?

Could cow milk be given at any time to an infant?

Cow milk could be given when the infant is more than one year old, otherwise the infant may develop an allergy to milk and milk products if the cow milk is given too early.

Moreover, the protein content of the cow milk is higher than that of the breast milk which can also give problems to the baby. Cow milk contains almost the same components of the breast milk. However, the amount of some components varies considerably and the antibodies which must protect them till they develop their own immune system are absent in cow milk.

What are the benefits to the infant?

The infant has to work hard to get the milk from mother’s breast. It helps the proper development of the jaws. The risk of allergies, asthma, respiratory and other infections can be decreased.

The infant has reduced risk for overweight, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.The infant has strong immune system and the risk of sudden infant death syndrome is decreased.

Breast milk and breast feeding

Breast milk contains the right amount of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals, vitamins, digestive proteins and hormones which the babies need. Apart from this, breast milk contains antibodies from the mother which can help the baby to resist infections. These are not present in any of the infant’s formula.

What are the benefits to the mother?

The risk of osteoporosis, ovarian and breast cancer and the risk for diabetes-2 are decreased. The mother’s weight comes down quickly to pre-pregnancy level, uterus reaches its original size earlier and the menstrual cycle becomes also normal quickly.

The bond between mother and the baby becomes stronger. There is no or less depression after the child birth.

Mother milk costs nothing to other formula milks. Moreover, the milk bottle makes the baby lazy and that is not good for the whole life.