Category Archives: menopause

Farnham Pilates – Stronger Saturday – Focus on Lifestyle for Bone Health

Bone density and lifestyle

This month at Farnham Pilates we’ve been focusing on helping clients improve their bone density and bone health. This week we look at lifestyle changes you can make to improve your bone health. These assume you do not have problems with your bones; if you do, please talk to your GP about anything new you would like to try.

Exercise

Activities like swimming and cycling are great for cardio fitness but they are not weight bearing so they won’t help your bone density. This is why a variety of exercises is best for overall health. Great weight bearing activities include:

  • Walking
  • Running
  • Dancing
  • Climbing
  • Skipping
  • Jumping up and down on the spot.

What else can you do?

Try to fit weight bearing exercise into everyday life:

  • Use the stairs rather than the lift
  • Try to keep moving throughout the day
  • When getting up from sitting or lying down, take your weight through your legs rather than using your arms to push you up
  • Do up and down exercise on the loo every time you go
  • Fit in five press-ups while you boil the kettle.

Take a look at my mum’s morning exercises here https://vimeo.com/349833103.  She does this two-minute routine each morning for flexibility and for bone health.

Try to reduce stress

Another way to look after your bones is to reduce stress in your life. Stress increases cortisol levels in your blood, in turn blood sugar levels increase which makes calcium levels in urine go up. Of course, none of us can avoid stress all the time, but it is useful to identify what situations make you feel stressed and work out ways to avoid them. I have done this and now:

  • I try to plan better so that I am not late.
  • I write to-do lists and shopping lists so that I don’t forget things or have to do two trips.
  • I keep a notepad by my bed so that if I think of something important, I can write it down and then forget about it.
  • I avoid reading emails just before I go to bed.
  • If I get stressed, I try to go for a walk (otherwise I would eat biscuits!

Next week in our final blog on bone density, we look at the Pilates exercises that can aid good bone health.

Squeeze and breathe,

Love Hannah x

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Best Foods for strong Bones from Farnham Pilates

Farnham Pilates Weekly Blog –
Get Stronger Saturday

Best foods for strong bones

Here is your weekly post on Bone health.

A few Osteoporosis/Bone Health Facts and Figures
Bone remodelling is a lifelong process, but unfortunately bone loss starts to outpace bone gain as we age.  This starts to happen around aged 34 when peak bone mass is achieved for most people….this is not an ‘old person’s issue’!   The decline in oestrogen production also has a negative impact on bone remodelling activity for both sexes – this isn’t, as many think, a ‘female only ‘ issue.  Men are less susceptible to developing osteoporosis but their stats are still pretty compelling.

·         The first 3-5 years following the onset of menopause are associated with an accelerated period of bone mass loss before the decline, settling to a more linear decline as menopause progresses.  Most women are hitting Peri-Menopause in their late 40’s and Menopause in their early 50’s.
·         As bone mass declines and the threshold for osteoporosis is approached and exceeded, the risk of fractures to the hip, spine and other fall fractures is also greatly increased.
·         In the UK and the US 1 in 2 women and 1 in 5 men over 50 will experience a fracture.
·         Research by the National Osteoporosis Society estimates that the daily cost of caring for those who experience disability due to hip fractures is somewhere in the region of £6 Million PER DAY!!
·         The mortality rate for those who experience hip fracture increases by 20% in the 12 months post fracture.
·         There are actually more ‘fragility fractures’ – (300,00)  in  the UK than strokes (275,000)  and heart attacks (110,000)
·         Hip fractures cause the most morbidity with reported mortality rates up to 20-24% in the first year after a hip fracture, and greater risk of dying may persist for at least 5 years afterwards. Loss of function and independence among survivors is profound, with 40% unable to walk independently, 60% requiring assistance a year later. Because of these losses, 33% are totally dependent or in a nursing home in the year following a hip fracture.
·         A 50 year old woman has a 2.8% risk of death related to hip fracture during her remaining lifetime, equivalent to her risk of death from breast cancer.
·         Studies have shown that bone mineral density in postmenopausal women can be maintained or increased with therapeutic exercise.

How diet can help increase bone density for strong bones

Here at Farnham Pilates we marked World Osteoporosis Day with a bone density health check for all Pilates clients. This week we are looking at ways your diet can make a difference to your bone health.

Calcium is vital to bone health and vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium. This is why food supplements often pair them together. If you would rather not take food supplements, consider adjusting your diet to include calcium-rich foods.

Calcium-rich foods

If you tolerate it, including cows’ milk and milk products in your diet is a great way to improve bone density. Other calcium-rich foods include:

  • Figs
  • Plums
  • Dark, leafy greens
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Almonds
  • Molasses.

Good sources of vitamin D: 

  • oily fish, such as salmon, sardines and mackerel 
  • eggs 
  • fortified fat spreads 
  • fortified breakfast cereals 
  • some powdered milks 

If you’ve been diagnosed with osteoporosis, your doctor may prescribe calcium and vitamin D supplements as well as osteoporosis drug treatments if they have concerns that your calcium intake may be low.Extra tips –
– Cook soups using bone broth from Sunday’s chicken (cook the bones and use as the stock!). I also use miso which is good for skin. 
– It’s also helpful to reduce your caffeine intake (caffeine affects how the body absorbs calcium) and to eat a healthy amount of protein every day.
– Reduce salt – excess salt is excreted in the urine along with calcium.
– Alcohol – Chronic alcohol consumption increases level of the parathyroid hormone, which leads to a leaching of calcium from bone; alcohol also has a role in decreasing osteoblast (the bone-making cell) formation.
– Check medications such as steroids – steroids can cause Steroid Induced Osteoporosis
– Reduce high sugar drinks – as phosphoric acid – found in Coca-Cola type drinks has been linked to lower bone density in some epidemiological studies – great information in this blog via Healthy But Smart and it’s also been included in a discussion in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
– Smoking – Research also suggests that smoking impedes the hormone calcitonin, which helps build bones; Nicotine and free radicals generated whilst smoking destroy ssteoblasts.
– Excess Sugar + Diabetes – High blood sugar slows new bone formation, accelerates bone resorption and impairs fracture healing.

Next week we will look at lifestyle changes you can make to improve your bone health. 

Squeeze and breathe 
Hannah

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