It is also important to take plenty of exercise to burn off the excess calories and to strengthen your bones. The more bones and muscles are used, the stronger they grow, so from your middle years onwards the new buzz-words in your life should be ‘mechanical loading’, which means giving your bones plenty of work. As you use your muscles, the bone-building osteoblasts respond by building more bone; exercise is also thought to stimulate the production of calcitonin, thereby slowing the activity of the bone-dissolving osteoclasts. We have only as much bone as we need, and nothing will cause the skeleton to become stronger than it needs to be for your lifestyle. No amount of calcium tablets will compensate for ‘mechanical loading’ of the bones and muscles.
Exercise is something most of us do much less of as we get older, which is a pity, as it:
• helps to build up bones
• is good for the heart
• reduces depression and stress
• is an effective form of weight control
• improves sleep
All these things become more important after the menopause, so try to build some regular exercise into your life. If you have already had an osteoporotic fracture, you should take advice from your specialist or from a physiotherapist about what form of exercise you should and should not be taking. If you have no sign of this disease, then you should be having plenty of exercise that loads the bones and muscles. Swimming and yoga are very good for all the other aspects of your life, but as they do not put any strain on bones you would need to include some other forms of exercise as well, such as tennis, dancing, brisk walking, aerobics, fitness training, etc.
Just a word of caution: forget the old maxim ‘If it isn’t hurting, it isn’t working’; after about the age of 35 this is a harmful philosophy, so listen to your body, and when it says ‘stop’, then stop before you do some damage you will regret.
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