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Make no bones!
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This weeks feature
Anyone for tennis? It keeps you young and your bones healthy.
Osteoporosis is increasing at an alarming rate. Heather Purchase finds that while tennis is one of the best forms of exercise to prevent it, you need to eat the right things too.
Although your bones may feel like they're creaking from years of playing tennis, chances are they're actually in very good shape.
That's because tennis is one of the best forms of exercise to ensure strong bones and protect against the onset of osteoporosis, commonly known as brittle bone disease.
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You can't beat tennis for stronger bones |
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200,000 fractures a year caused by the condition each year. | The Silent Epidemic
Osteoporosis is a degenerative disease that causes thinning of the bones, which can lead to frailty, fractures (most often in the wrist, hip or spine), a curved back and loss of height. It is also known as the 'silent epidemic' because it doesn't produce any symptoms until a fracture occurs - there are 200,000 fractures caused by the condition each year in the UK. One in three women and one in 12 men will develop osteoporosis during their lifetime at a cost of over £940 million a year to the National Health Service. |
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Tennis the best!
It's recommended that you do 20 minutes, three times a week, of weight-bearing exercise to stimluate the cells in the bones. Tennis comes top of the list of suggested activities along with squash and badminton - sports that force you to run, stretch, jump and skip. Other recommended pursuits include jogging, power walking, aerobics, skipping, athletics and weight training. Non weight-bearing activities like walking, golf and swimming do not have the same kind of benefits.
While too little exercise increases the chances of osteoporosis and moderate exercise protects against it, too much exercise can have the opposite effect, particularly in combination with amenorrhoea (absent menstruation) and an eating disorder.
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Other suggested activities are badminton and squash. |
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WINNERS OF THE HASTINGS DIRECT QUIZ
Alison Gibb, Willingdon
S. Barrell, Ferring
Colin McFarlin, Lindfield
Ian Smith, Ludlow
John Davis, Maidstone
Irene Newberry, West Hallam
Trett Sadler, Banstead
Kate Davies, Epsom
Margaret Mee, Wisbech
Gillian Grethe, Grays
T. Saunders, Crowborough
Tracy White, Polegate |
It can occur at any age
Although it's most common in elderly people, the condition can in fact occur at any age and alarmingly, it's increasing by 10 per cent a year.
Nutrition and exercise specialist Patricia Hawes and her colleague David Hutchins visit organisations across the UK including tennis and health clubs, companies and corporations, screening members and staff for osteoporosis.
The simple, pain-free test involves the patient placing a foot in a small, portable ultrasound machine. Ultrasound waves, which are radiation-free, are then passed through the heel (the heel contains a high percentage of the bone most affected by osteoporosis). A minute later, a bone density measurement is given.
Patricia explains: "A low reading means you are in danger and we would then advise you to see your GP who may then send you for a full body scan.
"We have visited a large number of Esportas, David Lloyds and other kinds of tennis and health clubs, and from our experience 90 per cent of these patients have healthy results. Very few have average results. By contrast, when we visit organisations where patients do not do exercise, the results are generally poor."
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The condition is increasing at 10% a year. |
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Exercise plays a key role | It is Largely Preventable
Osteoporosis is largely preventable through a balanced diet and a reasonable amount of exercise from a young age.
According to experts, the best way to prevent the condition is to maximise bone mass in the first three decades of life when bone is being formed at a greater rate than it is being lost - and exercise plays a key role in this process.
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It is also linked with eating disorders. | Most common in 'appearance' sports
According to experts, the combination of amenorrhoea, eating disorders and osteoporosis is now so prevalent in adolescent and young adult female althletes that it is known collectively as 'the athletic triad'. The problem is most common in 'appearance sports', such as diving, figure skating, gymnastics, ballet and synchronised swimming, as well as endurance sports, particularly long-distance and marathon running. Also at risk are athletes from sports with weight classification, including jockeys, boxers, wrestlers and rowers. |
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Consume plenty of Calcium | What to Eat and Drink
In addition to weight-bearing exercise, consuming plenty of calcium is another way to ensure healthy bones. The recommended daily allowance is 800mg of calcium a day for seven- to 12-year-olds and adults (that's two-thirds of a pint of milk or three slices of Cheddar cheese) but 1,000mg a day for teenagers and 1500mg a day for women during the menopause when oestrogen production, which strengthens bones, drops dramatically. |
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Thing to try and avoid. | What NOT to Eat and Drink
Don't be lulled into thinking that just because you play tennis regularly your bones are strong, as Patricia Hawes explains: "We treated one woman in her early 40s who had played tennis all her life whom we expected would have a high bone density. But because she drank a litre of fizzy drinks each day, he reading was dangerously low. Anything containing phosphates, like fizzy drinks, leaches the calcium out of your bones."
A study in America of 460 American school girls, found that one fifth of fizzy drinks addicts had suffered a bone fracture by the time they reached their 20s. It's thought that the phosphorous content of the drinks damages bone by altering the delicate balance of minerals in the body. When blood levels of phosphorous exceed calcium levels, the body responds by breaking down bone to release calcium into the blood, so that the ratio remains the same.
It's also recommended that alcohol, salt, tea and coffee consumption is limited because these are thought to take calcium from the bones. Smoking also causes a lack of calcium, so if you're a smoker, here's another reason to give up. Oxalic acid - a substance found in spinach, rhubarb, almonds and chocolate - reduces calcium absorption by the body, so these foods should be eaten in moderation.
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You don't have to eat a lot of high fat foods to get calcium. There is more calcium in skimmed and semi-skimmed milk than in full cream milk (though children up to the age of 12 or 13 need the latter, which contains vital vitamins, minerals and fats for growing bodies). Low fat cheese is also richer in calcium than full fat. Other good sources of calcium include leafy green vegetables, bread, fortified cereals, fish eaten with the bones such as sardines, dried fruits including sultanas, figs, currants and apricots as well as nuts and sesame seeds. Vitamin D is also needed by the body to absorb calcium and although the main source of this is from the action of sunlight on the skin, it can also be found in some foods, such as eggs, oily fish, margarine and fortified breakfast cereals.
Patricia Hawes warns that the UK will have a severe bone density problem in the years ahead. "Milk is no longer given out at school," she says. "Children, especially girls, tend to avoid dairy products because they think they are fattening and young people in general are not doing enough exercise. All this adds up to a nation with a bone density problem.
"We are already seeing a lot of young people in their late teens and early 20s who are showing very low bone density readings." |
Low fat cheese is also rich in calcium. |
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The sooner the better.
Researchers have also found that your skeleton's response to exercise is site-specific, being greatest at the site of maximum stress. For example, professional tennis players have up to 30 per cent greater bone density in their playing arms.
In terms of preventing osteoporosis, research suggests that the best time to start an exercise programme is during the early teenage years - a time, however, when a lot of young people, especially girls, lose interest in sport - tennis being no exception. Apparently, as much as 60 per cent of bone growth occurs during adolescence, when the effect of weight-bearing activity on bone mass is at its greatest, more so than calcium intake. This is borne out by a study which found that female tennis players whose careers began before the onset of menstruation had a two to four times greater bone density in their dominant arm than those who started 15 years later.
Patricia says people with low bone density readings can improve bone health through improved diet and exercise. So the earlier a test is done, usually starting around age 20, the better.
She adds: "You can increase bone density by up to six per cent by taking weight-bearing exercise. You can't put back the bone you have lost, but you can improve what's left and tennis is an excellent way to do this."
ÊÊSadly for retired doctor's receptionist Marion Hutchinson, 70, from Merseyside, this advice came too late. She had been a keen player at school but couldn't find the time to play while she was raising her family and failed to take care of her own well-being in tems of calcium intake. After retiring, a new indoor tennis centre opened near her home and so she decided to rekindle her love of tennis at the weekly over-50s sessions. But on about the third session she tripped and fell heavily. As well as breaking her wrist she was diagnosed with osteoporosis. "My doctor put me on daily doses of calcium, and advised me against tennis in case I fell over again, which is a big disappointment."
For further information on osteoporosis screening contact Patricia Hawes, 23 Ashlea Road, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, SL9 8NY (01753 886500, e-mail: Patricia.hawes@virgin.net).
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Professional tennis players have 30% greater bone density in their playing arms. |
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