imported_admin
07-26-2001, 12:37 AM
Medical research reveals most important factor for bone density is not Calcium
June 30, 2000
News: New issue of Women's Fitness for August/September will be in the bookstores by July 15th – Gabrielle Reece is on the cover. This issue has some great articles: T-Tapp's "Short Torso Spot Reduction - no more Apples" features T-Tapp Twist and Advanced Hoe Downs. Current issue (May/June) covers Thread the Needle, my special "core" movement that's effective for spot reduction of lower body as well as development of inner core muscle density. If your area doesn't have the Women's Fitness International magazine, you can get a subscription by calling Jill at 1-877-993-9946. I'm happy to report that new ownership of magazine has better printing and better shipping departments. Canadians can get magazine subscriptions again! A lot of people have requested copies of Thread the Needle to perfect their form or to add it to their existing workout program. If you'd like a copy, I will send you one with any T-Tapp order of $30 or more – It will be automatically added to your order at checkout. (Only have 100 copies, offer good while supply lasts.)
Wow, fitness retreats are filling fast – so for September 7th-10th, I'm going to allow non-retreat people the ability to attend my seminar Saturday evening with advance RSVP of $30 – Saturday evening seminar is from 7:30 - 9:30 pm. Topic of discussion is importance of "Personal Profile" for successful weight loss/management, Secrets How to Control Cellulite – even eliminate it, nutritional secrets How to Successfully Consume of Carbohydrates without gaining weight and more... requirement to reserve spot in advance, so I can account for size of room and number of chairs needed at the Cooper Aerobics Center. What a beautiful place!
Contest Winners: Sarah Applin, Markit Parkos, and Sue Rauner win their choice of Target Pop Videos Primary Back Stretch, Organs in Place/Half Frogs, or Awesome Legs. Congratulations to Susan Redwine, Kim Hembry, and Wendy Schulz who win their choice of Mini Max Workout 1, 2, 3 or 4. These videos are concentrated T-Tapp Total Workouts (each start with Primary Back Stretch), done without any instruction or breaks and have new and/or advanced movements. Each is less than 30 minutes, but deliver a full body workout with focus on different areas of the body. Winners please email your selection or call 800-342-0717. Next drawing for free videos will be July 10th. Be sure to re-register since names don't carry forward. Those who win video they already own can choose whatever Target Pop or Mini Max they desire.
Medical research reveals most important factor for bone density is not Calcium: Building bone density and/or preventing bone loss involves more than just taking calcium supplements! Recent scientific studies reveal that emphasis should be on exercise, not calcium supplementation, as major key to osteoporosis prevention.
Most women concerned about osteoporosis live by the following mantra: Eat enough dairy products, supplements or fortified foods and you'll get enough calcium. Get enough calcium and your bones will stay strong. Case closed.
That's the message we hear everywhere from doctor's offices to TV commercials. Just look at the recent frenzy among manufacturers to fortify foods with calcium from broad range of orange juice to candy bars. It's enough to convince everyone that calcium supplementation is the primary way to save our bones. But calcium may be overemphasized. "Calcium alone is not enough to protect bones," says Joan McGowan, PhD., director of the musculoskeletal diseases branch at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Top osteoporosis researchers, gathered with common opinion at a NIH conference in March 2000, concluded "Calcium matters, but so do other nutrients. Exercise is just as important for preventing bone thinning and fractures as drinking milk or popping calcium pills." In fact, it may be even more important. "Consuming a calcium-rich diet can improve bone strength by only 5%; whereas regular physical activity can improve it by 15%." That's a three-fold difference," says Thomas Lloyd, Ph.D., osteoporosis researcher at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, PA, and participant in the NIH consensus conference.
Previously, understanding osteoporosis has been fragmented with many opinions, but scientists are now coming to agreement about how to prevent it. Exercising regularly and eating a balanced diet through the teen years and early adulthood is crucial. "People who build strong bones during adolescence tend to avoid bone fragility and fractures late in life," says McGowan.
Focus on total approach: As adults we need to focus on stimulating our bones to keep maximum strength and mass through physical activity as well as feed them building blocks for ongoing regeneration with calcium, magnesium, vitamin D and vitamin K.
Osteoporosis affects at least 25 million people in America – 80% of them women. After a female turns 50, there's a one-in-two chance that she will experience an Osteo-related fracture at some time in her life. About 1.5 million Americans fall and break a bone every year. Of the more than 300,000 who end up in a hospital, usually with a cracked hip, as many as a third will die within a year. Unfortunately most people are not concerned about osteoporosis. Premenopausal women feel they're too young to worry about it and the elderly believe it's too late. But if you act early enough, you can usually prevent osteoporosis. At worst, you can halt or reverse its progression at virtually any stage – says Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld, author "Live Now, Age Later".
Bones constantly receive and lose calcium – the mineral that makes bones strong and break-resistant. They accumulate more calcium than they lose for about the first four decades of life, after that the process starts to be reversed. Between the ages of 40 and 50, bones start giving up more calcium than they receive. So the more you build up before it starts to seep out from your bones, the less likely you will develop osteoporosis later on. Unfortunately, osteoporosis usually doesn't have any symptoms until fairly late in the game, but as the disease progresses symptoms begin to appear. A turn of the wrist, a trivial fall or even a vigorous cough may cause a fracture.
Over the years, loss of calcium from the vertebrae in the spinal column causes collapse: You're not as tall as you used to be; your back becomes rounded, and "dowager's hump" may develop. But, overall, the most dangerous complication of osteoporosis is falling and breaking your hip. Don't wait until later – get a bone density test. The most accurate one is the DEXA, which stands for dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. DEXA will measure the mineral (i.e.: calcium) content of your bones with minimal exposure to radiation – it's quick and painless.
EXERCISE! New emphasis on exercise as key to osteoporosis prevention is backed by strong science. Many studies reveal that physical activity is the primary factor in determining strength, shape, and mass of bone; and that bone strength increases in tandem with increase of exercise frequency. Conversely, calcium is useless if you are inactive! Studies confirmed that when people are bedridden, rapid bone loss occurs, even if they are fed 1,000 mg of calcium daily.
For best results, exercise should include weight-bearing exercise (done standing) and resistance training. "Many people don't realize that you can build bone mass in individual bone groups through movements involving resistance. Tennis players build up the bones in their forearms just as weight lifters get heftier shoulder bones," says Lloyd. Postmenopausal women can increase their bone density 2% to 8% a year by regularly doing weight bearing and resistance exercises using the weight of the body or the resistance of machines. Any workout that includes walking or jogging one to two miles a day not only helps bones, but also is also good for the muscles and heart.
The T-Tapp Total Workout stimulates bone growth/regeneration without use of weights! The entire workout is done standing up and the specific sequence of compound, comprehensive muscle movement combined with isometric isolations creates stimulus to central core vertebrae. Furthermore, its unique ability to open neuro-kinetic flow, increase blood circulation and lymphatic circulation, challenges the skeletal frame with "balance movement". The T-Tapp Total Workout initially works to fatigue strong muscle groups then continues with linear alignment movement sequences while balancing on one leg. Two significant factors occur: First, bones now support twice as much weight in comparison to regular stance with both feet on ground – this greater gravitational pull enables bones to receive benefits of weight training without use of weights; Second, balancing on one leg challenges spinal muscle attachments to contract and "pull" along entire length of vertebrae with simultaneous left and right contractions in effort to maintain upright position against gravity. This repetitive contractual "wave" continues as "KLT" technique of lower limb initiates the left/right weight stimulus. This is apparent during Thread the Needle, Balance Sequence and T-Tapp Twist. Application of T-Tapp's “KLT” technique (knee aiming to little toe rather than big toe) during any type of movement will create greater "pull" on bone from muscle especially primary joints of lower body (hip and knee). Additionally, application of "KLT" creates stimulus to the "architecture" of bone (the way its woven together). "Bone health is not just about density or mass, "architecture" of bone seems to matter as well. And it appears that people who are very active have stronger bone "architecture" than those who are sedentary," says Thomas Lloyd, PhD (osteoporosis researcher-Penn State Medical College).
The T-Tapp Total Workout creates greater stimulus for development of bone density, mass and architecture as well as slower deterioration of vertebrae (spinal column) than weight bearing machines or free weights. The "KLT” technique creates better stimulus to hip/knee joints and its "linear alignment" technique creates better stimulus to spine, shoulder, hip and knee.
As people approach age 50, exercise becomes especially crucial. "This is the time when rapid bone loss can occur. But exercise, combined with good nutrition, can lessen bone loss," says McGowan. Experts see eye to eye on exercise, but not so for calcium. Some researchers still insist that the best way to protect bones against osteoporosis is through high doses of calcium – most doctors go along with this idea. In a recent Gallup poll underwritten by "Ocean Spray" – makers of calcium-fortified juices – 91% of doctors reported they believed women were not getting enough calcium from their diets.
The problem with convincing women that high calcium intake equals healthy bones is that the formula doesn't add up. Research done over many decades has shown that people who consume diets even higher in calcium than Americans have higher rates of fracture than we do. By contrast, Asian women – who consume relatively little calcium and eat no dairy – have lower overall fracture rates than American women.
Bone health depends not only on how much calcium you eat, but how much you retain in your bones. "Many factors affect calcium retention, chief among them how much you exercise and your genetics – but other nutrients in your diet have an influence too," says Walter Willmet, M.D., professor and chair of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.
There is scientific evidence, for example, that eating more salt than you need interferes with the body's ability to retain calcium. And most Americans do just that, "For every gram of sodium you consume, you excrete 26 mg of calcium into the urine," says Connie Weaver, Ph.D., head of foods and nutrition at Purdue University. So an extra gram of sodium daily would make you lose 1% of your bone mass every year.
Excess protein also seems to be an enemy of calcium absorption, although evidence is less clear, says Willett. A single daily serving of protein-dense food like meat, poultry, eggs, or fish, in addition to the protein we get from plant sources is plenty. More than that could be too much.
How much calcium do we women need then? There is no harm in aiming for the National Academy of Science's target of 1,000 mg a day. But active women who eat healthfully need not count milligrams, asserts Marion Nestle, Ph.D., chair of the department of nutrition and food studies at New York University. "If you stay away from junk food and focus on eating a varied diet that includes a wide assortment of plant foods, you'll get enough calcium."
Experts agree that women should get their calcium from food, not from supplements alone. Dairy is simplest, but there are plenty of sources. All plant foods contain calcium – legumes and leafy green vegetables are rich in calcium. Don't worry about getting too much calcium because unless you have gout or kidney disease, your body naturally sheds any excess.
Two other vitamins crucial for maintaining bone is vitamin K and vitamin D. A few servings of leafy green vegetables daily will supply adequate vitamin K. Low fat dairy products are the most readily available sources of vitamin D, but 15 minutes a day with your face and arms exposed to the sun will prompt your body to manufacture its own Vitamin D supply. (I take my Premium Blend Alfalfa, which is rich in vitamin K, vitamin D and calcium.)
McGowan offers one last piece of advice: "Very low body weight through-out life is one of the strongest predictors of bone thinning later in life. If you strive to ultra thin, you may pay a price." Instead of being thin by dieting – exercise to be lean.
Best wishes to all of you this 4th of July – have fun with family and friends. Be happy, stay active and remember... move those bones and catch some sun... I am!
Teresa Tapp
June 30, 2000
News: New issue of Women's Fitness for August/September will be in the bookstores by July 15th – Gabrielle Reece is on the cover. This issue has some great articles: T-Tapp's "Short Torso Spot Reduction - no more Apples" features T-Tapp Twist and Advanced Hoe Downs. Current issue (May/June) covers Thread the Needle, my special "core" movement that's effective for spot reduction of lower body as well as development of inner core muscle density. If your area doesn't have the Women's Fitness International magazine, you can get a subscription by calling Jill at 1-877-993-9946. I'm happy to report that new ownership of magazine has better printing and better shipping departments. Canadians can get magazine subscriptions again! A lot of people have requested copies of Thread the Needle to perfect their form or to add it to their existing workout program. If you'd like a copy, I will send you one with any T-Tapp order of $30 or more – It will be automatically added to your order at checkout. (Only have 100 copies, offer good while supply lasts.)
Wow, fitness retreats are filling fast – so for September 7th-10th, I'm going to allow non-retreat people the ability to attend my seminar Saturday evening with advance RSVP of $30 – Saturday evening seminar is from 7:30 - 9:30 pm. Topic of discussion is importance of "Personal Profile" for successful weight loss/management, Secrets How to Control Cellulite – even eliminate it, nutritional secrets How to Successfully Consume of Carbohydrates without gaining weight and more... requirement to reserve spot in advance, so I can account for size of room and number of chairs needed at the Cooper Aerobics Center. What a beautiful place!
Contest Winners: Sarah Applin, Markit Parkos, and Sue Rauner win their choice of Target Pop Videos Primary Back Stretch, Organs in Place/Half Frogs, or Awesome Legs. Congratulations to Susan Redwine, Kim Hembry, and Wendy Schulz who win their choice of Mini Max Workout 1, 2, 3 or 4. These videos are concentrated T-Tapp Total Workouts (each start with Primary Back Stretch), done without any instruction or breaks and have new and/or advanced movements. Each is less than 30 minutes, but deliver a full body workout with focus on different areas of the body. Winners please email your selection or call 800-342-0717. Next drawing for free videos will be July 10th. Be sure to re-register since names don't carry forward. Those who win video they already own can choose whatever Target Pop or Mini Max they desire.
Medical research reveals most important factor for bone density is not Calcium: Building bone density and/or preventing bone loss involves more than just taking calcium supplements! Recent scientific studies reveal that emphasis should be on exercise, not calcium supplementation, as major key to osteoporosis prevention.
Most women concerned about osteoporosis live by the following mantra: Eat enough dairy products, supplements or fortified foods and you'll get enough calcium. Get enough calcium and your bones will stay strong. Case closed.
That's the message we hear everywhere from doctor's offices to TV commercials. Just look at the recent frenzy among manufacturers to fortify foods with calcium from broad range of orange juice to candy bars. It's enough to convince everyone that calcium supplementation is the primary way to save our bones. But calcium may be overemphasized. "Calcium alone is not enough to protect bones," says Joan McGowan, PhD., director of the musculoskeletal diseases branch at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Top osteoporosis researchers, gathered with common opinion at a NIH conference in March 2000, concluded "Calcium matters, but so do other nutrients. Exercise is just as important for preventing bone thinning and fractures as drinking milk or popping calcium pills." In fact, it may be even more important. "Consuming a calcium-rich diet can improve bone strength by only 5%; whereas regular physical activity can improve it by 15%." That's a three-fold difference," says Thomas Lloyd, Ph.D., osteoporosis researcher at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, PA, and participant in the NIH consensus conference.
Previously, understanding osteoporosis has been fragmented with many opinions, but scientists are now coming to agreement about how to prevent it. Exercising regularly and eating a balanced diet through the teen years and early adulthood is crucial. "People who build strong bones during adolescence tend to avoid bone fragility and fractures late in life," says McGowan.
Focus on total approach: As adults we need to focus on stimulating our bones to keep maximum strength and mass through physical activity as well as feed them building blocks for ongoing regeneration with calcium, magnesium, vitamin D and vitamin K.
Osteoporosis affects at least 25 million people in America – 80% of them women. After a female turns 50, there's a one-in-two chance that she will experience an Osteo-related fracture at some time in her life. About 1.5 million Americans fall and break a bone every year. Of the more than 300,000 who end up in a hospital, usually with a cracked hip, as many as a third will die within a year. Unfortunately most people are not concerned about osteoporosis. Premenopausal women feel they're too young to worry about it and the elderly believe it's too late. But if you act early enough, you can usually prevent osteoporosis. At worst, you can halt or reverse its progression at virtually any stage – says Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld, author "Live Now, Age Later".
Bones constantly receive and lose calcium – the mineral that makes bones strong and break-resistant. They accumulate more calcium than they lose for about the first four decades of life, after that the process starts to be reversed. Between the ages of 40 and 50, bones start giving up more calcium than they receive. So the more you build up before it starts to seep out from your bones, the less likely you will develop osteoporosis later on. Unfortunately, osteoporosis usually doesn't have any symptoms until fairly late in the game, but as the disease progresses symptoms begin to appear. A turn of the wrist, a trivial fall or even a vigorous cough may cause a fracture.
Over the years, loss of calcium from the vertebrae in the spinal column causes collapse: You're not as tall as you used to be; your back becomes rounded, and "dowager's hump" may develop. But, overall, the most dangerous complication of osteoporosis is falling and breaking your hip. Don't wait until later – get a bone density test. The most accurate one is the DEXA, which stands for dual energy X-ray absorptiometry. DEXA will measure the mineral (i.e.: calcium) content of your bones with minimal exposure to radiation – it's quick and painless.
EXERCISE! New emphasis on exercise as key to osteoporosis prevention is backed by strong science. Many studies reveal that physical activity is the primary factor in determining strength, shape, and mass of bone; and that bone strength increases in tandem with increase of exercise frequency. Conversely, calcium is useless if you are inactive! Studies confirmed that when people are bedridden, rapid bone loss occurs, even if they are fed 1,000 mg of calcium daily.
For best results, exercise should include weight-bearing exercise (done standing) and resistance training. "Many people don't realize that you can build bone mass in individual bone groups through movements involving resistance. Tennis players build up the bones in their forearms just as weight lifters get heftier shoulder bones," says Lloyd. Postmenopausal women can increase their bone density 2% to 8% a year by regularly doing weight bearing and resistance exercises using the weight of the body or the resistance of machines. Any workout that includes walking or jogging one to two miles a day not only helps bones, but also is also good for the muscles and heart.
The T-Tapp Total Workout stimulates bone growth/regeneration without use of weights! The entire workout is done standing up and the specific sequence of compound, comprehensive muscle movement combined with isometric isolations creates stimulus to central core vertebrae. Furthermore, its unique ability to open neuro-kinetic flow, increase blood circulation and lymphatic circulation, challenges the skeletal frame with "balance movement". The T-Tapp Total Workout initially works to fatigue strong muscle groups then continues with linear alignment movement sequences while balancing on one leg. Two significant factors occur: First, bones now support twice as much weight in comparison to regular stance with both feet on ground – this greater gravitational pull enables bones to receive benefits of weight training without use of weights; Second, balancing on one leg challenges spinal muscle attachments to contract and "pull" along entire length of vertebrae with simultaneous left and right contractions in effort to maintain upright position against gravity. This repetitive contractual "wave" continues as "KLT" technique of lower limb initiates the left/right weight stimulus. This is apparent during Thread the Needle, Balance Sequence and T-Tapp Twist. Application of T-Tapp's “KLT” technique (knee aiming to little toe rather than big toe) during any type of movement will create greater "pull" on bone from muscle especially primary joints of lower body (hip and knee). Additionally, application of "KLT" creates stimulus to the "architecture" of bone (the way its woven together). "Bone health is not just about density or mass, "architecture" of bone seems to matter as well. And it appears that people who are very active have stronger bone "architecture" than those who are sedentary," says Thomas Lloyd, PhD (osteoporosis researcher-Penn State Medical College).
The T-Tapp Total Workout creates greater stimulus for development of bone density, mass and architecture as well as slower deterioration of vertebrae (spinal column) than weight bearing machines or free weights. The "KLT” technique creates better stimulus to hip/knee joints and its "linear alignment" technique creates better stimulus to spine, shoulder, hip and knee.
As people approach age 50, exercise becomes especially crucial. "This is the time when rapid bone loss can occur. But exercise, combined with good nutrition, can lessen bone loss," says McGowan. Experts see eye to eye on exercise, but not so for calcium. Some researchers still insist that the best way to protect bones against osteoporosis is through high doses of calcium – most doctors go along with this idea. In a recent Gallup poll underwritten by "Ocean Spray" – makers of calcium-fortified juices – 91% of doctors reported they believed women were not getting enough calcium from their diets.
The problem with convincing women that high calcium intake equals healthy bones is that the formula doesn't add up. Research done over many decades has shown that people who consume diets even higher in calcium than Americans have higher rates of fracture than we do. By contrast, Asian women – who consume relatively little calcium and eat no dairy – have lower overall fracture rates than American women.
Bone health depends not only on how much calcium you eat, but how much you retain in your bones. "Many factors affect calcium retention, chief among them how much you exercise and your genetics – but other nutrients in your diet have an influence too," says Walter Willmet, M.D., professor and chair of the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health.
There is scientific evidence, for example, that eating more salt than you need interferes with the body's ability to retain calcium. And most Americans do just that, "For every gram of sodium you consume, you excrete 26 mg of calcium into the urine," says Connie Weaver, Ph.D., head of foods and nutrition at Purdue University. So an extra gram of sodium daily would make you lose 1% of your bone mass every year.
Excess protein also seems to be an enemy of calcium absorption, although evidence is less clear, says Willett. A single daily serving of protein-dense food like meat, poultry, eggs, or fish, in addition to the protein we get from plant sources is plenty. More than that could be too much.
How much calcium do we women need then? There is no harm in aiming for the National Academy of Science's target of 1,000 mg a day. But active women who eat healthfully need not count milligrams, asserts Marion Nestle, Ph.D., chair of the department of nutrition and food studies at New York University. "If you stay away from junk food and focus on eating a varied diet that includes a wide assortment of plant foods, you'll get enough calcium."
Experts agree that women should get their calcium from food, not from supplements alone. Dairy is simplest, but there are plenty of sources. All plant foods contain calcium – legumes and leafy green vegetables are rich in calcium. Don't worry about getting too much calcium because unless you have gout or kidney disease, your body naturally sheds any excess.
Two other vitamins crucial for maintaining bone is vitamin K and vitamin D. A few servings of leafy green vegetables daily will supply adequate vitamin K. Low fat dairy products are the most readily available sources of vitamin D, but 15 minutes a day with your face and arms exposed to the sun will prompt your body to manufacture its own Vitamin D supply. (I take my Premium Blend Alfalfa, which is rich in vitamin K, vitamin D and calcium.)
McGowan offers one last piece of advice: "Very low body weight through-out life is one of the strongest predictors of bone thinning later in life. If you strive to ultra thin, you may pay a price." Instead of being thin by dieting – exercise to be lean.
Best wishes to all of you this 4th of July – have fun with family and friends. Be happy, stay active and remember... move those bones and catch some sun... I am!
Teresa Tapp