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This brief section on osteoporosis may not actually be all that funny to many people. As people age, bones begin to lose calcium and become fragile, a condition called osteoporosis. This condition affects the majority of the world's population over 70 years of age, and up until recently, the brittle bones and hunched stature of the elderly were sort of written off as expected consequence of aging. Currently, more than 1 in 150 Americans suffer osteoporosis-related hip fractures annually. Nearly 1/3 of these individuals may die within a year's time. Women are much more prone to osteoporosis than men, so they should they should be even more careful and aware of this disease. Although bone loss may be a normal process of aging, it does not have to happen. However, today, prevention of osteoporosis is a real possibility. Certain factors-such as poor nutrition, lack of exercise, alcohol, kidney, liver and pancreas disease- can all contribute to the progression of osteoporosis. Frankly , prevention is by far the best treatment!

You may think that going easy on your bones and not bearing weight on them very often will keep them from being damaged. This is a reasonable thought, but, in reality, it is quite the opposite! It may be a difficult concept to grasp if you are not familiar with the actual cell that make bone, but it is really very simple-using your body strengthens the bones if you provide the proper building materials-think of it like a sturdy building frame. This progression of this disease certainly makes it one that lends to preventive measures. In the vitamins chapter, I have already stressed the importance of calcium which is certainly key to warding off osteoporosis-remember "milk does a body good"! And as we discussed, it takes adequate vitamin D for calcium to be absorbed. Exposure to a healthy amount of sun is beneficial to ensure vitamin D production; although, UV rays of the sun promote the production of vitamin D, this benefit must of course be balanced with the negative impacts of these same rays. Eating a diet rich in dark leafy greens, beans, and legumes can all help you prevent osteoporosis as well.

Exercise is a tremendous modifier of osteoporosis risk as we already alluded to earlier. The human body is truly amazing. Ever seen how body builders can increase the size of their muscle? Well, this happens basically through resistance or pressure on the muscle). Not everyone knows that bones actually work in the same fashion-i.e. the more that

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