Juice and Soda Mustaches
Elbow Out Milk
Information supplied by Waukesha Memorial Hospital
If your child guzzles soft drinks or more than one cup of juice daily, she could be on track to brittle bones later in life.
According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, calcium deficiency is rampant among U.S. children, as juice and soda elbow out milk. Children ages birth to 11, and teenage
males, are consuming just half the appropriate calcium for their age.
Worst off are teenage females, who consume only 14 to 20 percent of required
calcium daily, in part, due to dairy restricting diets.
Children cannot build bones later in life, stresses Adel Korkor, MD,
medical director of the Bone Loss Prevention Center at Waukesha Memorial Hospital.
"If they do not get the calcium required in childhood and adolescence, they have
lost the opportunity forever," he says. Why? By age 17, 90 percent of adult bone mass is formed. The denser a child's bones are by this age, the more protected she or he will be later in life from osteoporosis.
Bone Up Before Age 30
To Prevent Osteoporosis
Did you know that by age 30, your bones are as dense as they ever will be? Without adequate calcium intake and weight-bearing exercise, you could be on your way to the bone-thinning disease known as osteoporosis.
Women nearing menopause should speak with their doctors about bone densitometry, a painless, 15 minute bone density test. The test costs about $300; Medicare covers bone densitometry every other year.
Now, there is a "heel" test geared for younger women. Last year, the Food and Drug Administration approved several new screening tools, including a less expensive X-ray device that gauges bone density.
"A heel measurement is the best peripheral site to use to predict one's risk of a hip fracture," says Brian Lipman, MD, radiologist on staff at Waukesha Memorial Hospital. "Starting at age 35, women should know their bone density," Lipman says. "Knowing that you have low bone density can change your behavior and thus play a crucial role in prevention."
Staring at age 40, women lose one percent of spinal bone annually, a pace that accelerates
to between three and eight percent starting at menopause. Osteoporotic fractures start
to occur when a person has lost 20 percent of bone mass.
Two weapons against bone loss are adequate calcium intake and regular weight bearing
exercise. The average woman consumes 500 milligrams of calcium daily -- just half of what experts recommend. If you do not consume 1,000 milligrams daily (the equivalent of four glasses of milk) take a calcium supplement to bridge the gap.
Information supplied by
Waukesha Memorial Hospital.
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