Preventing Bone Loss

Preventing bone loss is an important focus for individuals who are over the age of 40 and particularly women. Women tend to lose bone faster than men and they also tend to lose more of the mass. Brittle bones can lead to easy breakage and frailty as well as osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is basically low bone mass which can result in painful fractures.  A combination of a diet rich in calcium and antioxidant supplements and resistance training may protect against bone loss in postmenopausal women.

On one study undertaken on the subject of the effect of antioxidant supplements and resistance training, it was found that women who received a combination of vitamins C and E, and exercise did not experience any bone loss during a six-month period, while women receiving placebo and not engaging in exercise did lose a significant amount of bone loss .  Although it was previously known that resistance training significantly reduces the amount of bone loss in women, this is the first study to examine the combination of both antioxidant supplements and this specific exercise.  It is believed that antioxidants are extremely powerful when it comes to preventing bone loss because they may reduce the effects of oxidative stress on bone mass.

Both men and women need to focus on preventing loss of bone mass but women are up to four times more likely to develop osteoporosis than men. Every year about 500,000 women in America alone suffer from fractures of vertebrae and over 300,000 suffer from hip fractures related to osteoporosis. Fortunately, through a combination of a diet rich in antioxidants as well as specific supplements and resistance training can prevent bone loss which leads to these types of health problems.