The Better Bones Blog
by Dr. Susan Brown, PhD.
Back strengthening exercise to prevent spinal fractures
You have probably heard that back strengthening exercise helps to prevent spinal osteoporotic fractures — but are all types of exercises equally beneficial? No, they are not, as clearly documented by an early Mayo Clinic study (Sinaki and Mikkelsen 1984). This study showed clearly that extension-type back strengthening exercise effectively prevented further spinal deformation in […]
High calcium intake does not prevent fractures
Years ago, in the first edition of my book, Better Bones, Better Body, I noted that high calcium intakes did not seem to prevent fractures. Cross-cultural data, in fact, suggested that countries with the highest calcium intake actually had the highest rates of osteoporotic hip fractures. Recently, sophisticated meta-analysis of the major published studies on […]
Vitamin D is more important than calcium
Recently, data from a study of 10,000 Americans supported once again our contention that vitamin D is more important to bone health than is calcium. Even more, this new research suggests that high calcium intakes only aid bone density in those with very low vitamin D status. Data from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition […]
Spinal Fracture – How Strong Back Muscles Can Help You!
Exercise builds muscle and bone, but the benefits are held to disappear upon exercise cessation — or so it appeared, anyway. A recent exercise study from the Mayo Clinic, however, documented powerful spinal fracture reduction eight years after cessation of a back strengthening exercise program. Eight years after stopping this two-year exercise program, past exercisers […]
Weak bones in vegetarians?
You might have seen the recent news headlines proclaiming that “Vegetarian Diet Weakens Bones.” This headline, which was published by news sources all around the world, stemmed from an overview analysis (known as a “meta-analysis”) of nine published studies which compared the bone density of vegetarians and omnivores. From the way the news headline was […]
Bone fractures – A wake-up call
Thirty years ago, I was impressed to hear a panel of cancer survivors declare that they were glad they had developed cancer. Looking back, they appreciated the cancer because facing this serious challenge caused them to move ahead and improve their lives in unprecedented ways. Recently, I was equally impressed by a call from a […]