EXERCISE PLAN FOR HEALTHY BONES: STRETCHING

Posted: under Healthy bones Osteoporosis Rheumatic.

Stretching relaxes the mind as well as the body, so you get the benefit of stress reduction as well as better balance and coordination, increased range of motion, reduced tension, fewer injuries, greater body awareness, and improved circulation. No matter what else you do in the way of physical activity (or even just everyday motions), stretching will make it easier for you. That’s all generally good for you, plus it will decrease your chance of falling, and so your risk of fracture, no matter what your bone density. Stretching after exercise will also lessen later soreness and stiffness—thereby making exercise more pleasant and easier to stick with.Many of us are stuck with old stretching habits picked up long ago, and odds are they are, at best, not maximally effective. At worst, they could be making you less flexible and more prone to injury. Whatever you do, no bouncing! Just about every weekend jogger I see stretching is bouncing up and down trying to get that nose a little closer to the knee with each bounce, but in reality that’s the worst possible approach. The muscles knot up tighter with each rebound, and the rapid pace doesn’t allow the muscle to stretch at all before it is contracted again.If this sounds like you—or if you have only dim memories of high school gym class lessons in stretching to go on—I recommend taking a stretching class or checking a recent book or video out of the library to update your technique. I favor “active-isolated” stretching, or AI in fitness parlance, which holds that to stretch a muscle, it must be relaxed. Relaxing a muscle requires contracting the muscle or muscles that work in opposition to it. That is, to stretch the hamstrings (back of the thigh), you should be in a position that relaxes them by requiring contraction of the quads (front of the thigh.) In AI, you hold each stretch for just two seconds, but repeat it, slowly, several times. This is the best kind of stretching to use pre-exercise.You should devote 15 to 20 minutes at a time to stretching to cover all the major muscle groups. For the benefit of your bones, be sure to stretch your back and hips well. The abdominals and thigh muscles all participate in rotating your hip, so they should be targeted as well. Make stretching a regular part of your routine, and you should be able to see a difference within three weeks.The second most common stretching mistake—after The Bounce—is using it as a warm-up. The best pre-exercise warm-up is to simply do the exercise you will be doing at a much slower rate to ease the muscles into it. If you are doing just a stretching workout, you will need to warm yourself up a bit first—walk briskly around the block or march in place for a few minutes, swinging your arms— to get your muscles warm before you stretch them. Or try stretching after a warm shower. The best time to stretch is as a cool-down after another form of exercise, when your muscles are already warm and easier to stretch. Then you may want to use a longer, larger stretch than AI techniques provide, with slow progression.*119\228\2*

Comments (0) Jul 27 2011


HEALTHY BONES, HEALTHY BODY: HOW BONE GROWS

Posted: under Healthy bones Osteoporosis Rheumatic.

Bone is constructed from calcium and other minerals crystallized on a soft matrix (a sort of 3-D frame) of collagen and other proteins. The combination of organic and inorganic materials makes bone both rigid and strong. (Unlike calcium alone—think of how easy it is to snap a piece of chalk, which is made primarily of calcium, in half.) Blood vessels run throughout bone. In the center of each bone you find marrow, where blood cells are made.
Your skeleton is made of two kinds of bone. About 80 percent of it is cortical bone, which is hard, dense, and stiff. It makes up the outer shell of most bones, and the long bones in your arms and legs, and most of your hip bones. It is designed to withstand quite a bit of stress. Spongy trabecular bone is found inside of cortical casings, in the vertebrae, at the ends of the long bones in your limbs, and in parts of your hips.
As bones age, cells called osteoclasts seek out old or damaged parts of the bone and dissolve them, which is called resorption. Resorption dissolves crystallized calcium and other minerals in your bones, returning them to the blood. This leaves small spaces, and cells called osteoblasts create new bone to fill them in. In forming new bone, calcium and other minerals are taken from the blood and crystallized in the bone. The continuous cycle of formation and breakdown is known as bone remodeling. When all goes well, this is a constant tit-for-tat for many years, with the osteoblasts (builders) staying just ahead of the osteoclasts (dissolvers) to produce bone that is growing and getting denser—or maintaining good density.
You lose and gain bone this way throughout your lifetime. Remodeling is orchestrated by various hormones, and in later chapters you will see how important maintaining natural levels of hormones is to the health of your bones. Throughout childhood and into young adulthood, bone formation outpaces resorption, so you get taller as your bones get longer, for one thing, and your bones also get wider and denser. But the neat teamwork of osteoblasts and osteoclasts comes uncoupled somewhere around age 35, and bone breakdown can then outpace bone formation— and that’s the rub. If the osteoclasts are busier dissolving bone than the osteoblasts are busy making it, your bones actually get holes in them. That’s osteoporosis—literally, porous bones. Thin bones like that are brittle and fragile, so they fracture easily. Osteoporotic fractures can cause disfiguration, chronic pain, immobility, and even death.
Officially, osteoporosis is divided into two categories. Type I, which is postmenopausal osteoporosis, mainly affects women between 50 and 65, and usually involves trabecular bone more than cortical bone. Type II, which is “age-associated,” and the bane of older people, typically involves loss of cortical bone equal to that of trabecular. Osteoporosis known to be caused by a medication or disease is known as secondary osteoporosis.
Osteomalacia, or soft bones, known as rickets in children, is a related concern, occurring when minerals don’t crystallize on the bone matrix properly (often due to lack of vitamin D, which you need to make use of the calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium— not to mention vitamins A and E). With osteomalacia, you don’t have enough calcium and phosphorus forming into bone, but that alone is not the same as osteoporosis. Osteoporosis involves lack of other minerals as well, along with a decrease in bone matrix. For healthy bones, both bone mass and bone quality are key. Osteomalacia can be a precursor of osteoporosis.
Another precursor is osteopenia, which means simply low bone mass: density that is lower than normal, but not low enough to lead to fractures. This is a warning sign that osteoporosis— which does lead to a high rate of fractures—is on its way unless you take action. Far too often, the first sign of osteoporosis (or the first one that gets read, anyway) is a fracture that is spontaneous or results from a minor impact, especially in the hip, wrist, or spine. Most victims don’t even realize they are in danger until they are already at a crisis point. The second goal of this book, after prevention, is awareness. You won’t be able to protect yourself and keep yourself healthy unless you know you are at risk.
If you know their significance, there are other signs that your bones are already in trouble. Bad back pain, especially in the lower back, or other bone pain, is a common symptom, as is a decrease in height. Deformity is also a signal, particularly kyphosis—dowager’s hump or hunchback— resulting from multiple fractures in the vertebrae that cause the vertebrate to become wedged together and the spine to collapse. Several other signs, especially if clustered together, may be pointing toward osteoporosis: leg and foot cramps, especially at night, extreme fatigue, large amounts of plaque on the teeth, periodontal disease, loss of teeth, brittle or soft fingernails, premature graying, and heart palpitations. Especially in the case of these more amorphous associations, you should rule out everything else before you pin the cause on osteoporosis or low bone density. Don’t panic because you need your teeth cleaned more than every six months: you might just have a super-conscientious dentist, or need a better brushing/flossing routine, or you just have a lot of plaque.
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Comments (0) Jun 15 2011


DISORDERS OF BONES

Posted: under Healthy bones Osteoporosis Rheumatic.

The skeleton which supports the structure of the human body is composed of bone; this consists of protein materials in which a calcium phosphate and carbonate combination constitutes the hard material. The bone is naturally fed with blood, and the blood removes material from the bony skeleton.
Various diseases may seriously damage the system by which the bone is formed and may also bring about destruction of bone. Certain general disturbances of the body chemistry may also influence the bones unfavorably. People who have remained long infirm will have changes in the bone structure of lower parts of the body, whereas the bones of the jaw and other bones which are active will not degenerate. The bones of the spine are the ones chiefly affected.
There are other diseases of bones, such as “Paget’s” in which 95 per cent of the skeleton of the body may be involved.
Bone disorders in adult human beings are divided into two main groups in relationship to whether there is too much calcified bone or too little calcified bone. Since the discovery of the X-ray it has become possible to study the bones much more carefully than previously. Frequently, conditions are detected which formerly were passed unnoticed.
In cases of loss of calcium from the bones, they may become porous. If the loss affects the bones during the growing period, they may bend, so that bowlegs will occur. Softening of the bones by the condition called osteoporosis may occur also, from disuse of the body generally. This happens sometimes following the long retention of a plaster cast. Frequently osteoporosis is found in cases of excessive action of the thyroid and in other instances in which nutrition has been inadequate, particularly when the diet is deficient in calcium and in phosphorus. Osteoporosis has been found when there is deficiency of vitamin C – particularly in growing children. Finally, osteoporosis is seen in old age when all of the tissues of the body begin to lose their ability to function in a normal manner. No one knows just how much of the breakdown in old age is due to lack of function of the sex glands. Senile osteoporosis is more common in women than in men.
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Comments (0) Jan 14 2011


MORE ABOUT TREATMENTS OF ARTHRITIS

Posted: under Healthy bones Osteoporosis Rheumatic.

The innumerable treatments of arthritis over the years have reflected the lack of certain knowledge as to the causes and mechanisms concerned in its development. Iodides, sulfur, salicylates and, more recently, gold have been used. Vaccines, serums, and non-specific proteins have been tried. Antibiotics and sulfonamides have been used but have been unavailing, since the condition is not an infection that could be controlled with these drugs. For many years aspirin has been the main drug for relief of pain in arthritis. Drugs based on quinine derivatives are also reportedly helpful. The greatest promise of any medical treatment thus far known has come from ACTH and Cortisone. A new form called Prednisone sold as Meticorten, Sterane, or Deltra is superior because it does not disturb water and salt balance. The dosage and duration of use must be strictly controlled by the doctor.
People do not die of rheumatoid arthritis but complications may occur which are especially serious for the arthritic patient. Troubles with the lungs including pneumonia, damage to the heart and secondary infections are a threat.
Rheumatoid arthritis may be especially serious for children because of deformities that persist throughout life. A severe form of rheumatoid arthritis in childhood is known as “Still’s disease.” Another form of rheumatoid arthritis is associated with psoriasis, and there are arthritic manifestations that affect women in the menopause.
Rheumatoid arthritis affecting the spine is a crippling condition responsible for much disability. This condition usually occurs in men rather than in women. Pains in the back, soreness on bending over, painful buttocks, and shooting pains in the sciatic nerve area are accompaniments. With spasms of the spinal muscles comes a tendency to avoid movement and in some instances the stiff-poker spine develops. The X-ray reveals changes in the spine as the condition progresses, but early in the disease nothing significant may be observed. These are the patients who are helped by sleeping in a bed with a firm mattress. Hot, wet packs help to relieve the spasm of the muscles. X-ray treatments may also help these patients.
Degenerative joint disease hits people past middle age. The changes may be part of the aging process and associated with injury. The condition occurs all over the world and particularly in certain occupations such as porters, those who stand long at work, scrub-women and janitors. In diagnosis of these cases X-ray is of great importance. Use of salicylates and of aspirin, for relief, heat, mild massage and liniments are reported beneficial in securing relief for those with degenerative arthritis.
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Comments (0) Dec 24 2010