It’s true that most of bone building takes place when you’re younger. However, it is important to understand that it’s never too late to improve your bone health. Good nutrition, healthy supplementation and exercise are the 3 most powerful ways to alleviate bone loss.

Nutritional supplement support to good nutrition is one of the simplest and most cost efficient ways to eliminate and even reverse bone loss and reduce hip fractures.

The first thing you should be thinking about is your calcium intake. It is recommended that adults over the age of 50 should be consuming 1,200 mg of calcium daily.  I personally think the number should be higher and make it my business to consume about 2,000 mg of calcium daily. I don’t always achieve that number but I try.

The problem is most Americans only consume about 600 mg of calcium daily which will likely mean more bone loss. The right amount of calcium intake slows the rate of bone loss and does reduce the risk of fractures in most bones for those of us over 50. It doesn’t matter if you get your calcium from food, a supplement, or the other foods that are fortified with calcium.

The combination of calcium and vitamin D can reduce the risk of fractures by as much as 40 percent.

On the other hand, it’s important not to exceed and take too much calcium. This is especially for men, because higher dosages are linked to cancer for men. I’m not sure studies have confirmed those reported results, but why take a chance? On the other hand, some studies do show that people over 51 who did take the minimal recommended amount of calcium and vitamin D made were less likely to lose their teeth.

The accepted fact is that people do need vitamin D.

In 2010, the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) of the Institute of Medicine set a Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) based on the amount of vitamin D needed for bone health. While the recommended intake was increased from the adequate intake level (AI) set in 1997, some experts fell that this level was still too low to result in sufficient  D levels. The American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends 400 IU/day of vitamin D for all infants, children, and adolescents.  For adults 19-50 years the recommended dosage is 600 IU and for those over 70 it’s 800 IU.

Today the thinking is more that before age 60, vitamin D intake should be at least 1000-2000 IU/daily and after age 60 vitamin D intake should be at least 2000 IU/day.  Some women may need more, as much as 4000 IU day to bring levels up to where they can halt or even reverse further bone loss.  I personally take about 3000 IU’s daily and that number was recommended by my physician who believes the recommended dosages of vitamin D is too small.

Vitamin D is necessary for the healthy absorption of calcium and it also produces muscle strength. The problem is that as we get older we become less efficient at generating enough vitamin D through sun exposure. That means our intestines can’t absorb calcium from what we eat as well when we don’t have enough vitamin D so the body draws more calcium from the bones.

During these winter months I’m thinking of raising it to 4000 IU myself. I haven’t seen much of the sun these past weeks. Getting enough vitamin D is just as much trouble during the summer months because of all the sun screen I use – all the time. Thank goodness there is supplementation.

To your healthy aging and good bones,

Ruthan Brodsky

Ruthan Brodsky
Health & Business Writer
Copywriter and Content Marketer

Most of us think of our bones as being solid, like steel. Our image is that our bones are the skeleton that holds us up and keeps all our organs and muscles and skin in place.

Our images are wrong. Our bones are dynamic, always changing. Besides, they are not a solid mass of calcium and other minerals.  Out bones are always changing, not just when we’re young and growing but even as we age.

If you’ve ever broken a bone you know that bones can heal themselves. What you may not realize is that new bone is constantly forming to replace old bone that has been broken down. Getting rid of the old bone and building new bone is all  part of a normal daily process of continual bone turnover that allows fully developed bones to maintain and renew themselves.

If there is more bone formation than bone loss, our bones become stronger. If there is more bone loss and less bone formation our bones become weaker. That is the concern of osteoporosis.

Most of the drugs prescribed today for treating osteoporosis slow down the removal of bone so you don’t lose as much.

The very dangerous time for women appears to be the first five to seven years after menopause. It seems that low estrogen levels are an important cause of bone loss for women. The reasons for bone loss in men are less clear but more men are fracturing their hips. In fact, something like 20 percent of hip fractures today occur in men and when they take place, they are more devastating than when they happen to women. For instance, men are twice as likely to die within a year following hip fracture as women.

Part of the problem is Osteoporosis is a silent risk factor for fracture and high risk women should be tested. A high risk women is a Caucasian women aged 65 or older.

Some of the risk factors you can’t control and others you can. Take a look at these.

What You Can’t Control

• Fractured a bone earlier as an adult

• Have immediate family members with a history of fractures

• Are Caucasian

• Over the age of 65

• Have dementia

• Are frail and in poor health

You are a risk with these factors also, but you may be able to control them

• Smoke cigarettes

• Started menopause before age 45 and have estrogen deficiency

• Have a low calcium intake –Suffer from alcoholism

• Don’t get enough physical activity

• Are in poor health

• Too thin for your height – thinner people have smaller bones

More about how you can improve your risk factors in my next post. In the meantime, keep exercising, take calcium supplements and vitamin D.
If one of you has reduced your risk of bone fractures after you were told you had osteopenia or osteoporosis, tell us your story. What did you do to slow down the loss? Type your story in the comment section.

To your healthy aging success,

Ruthan

Ruthan Brodsky

Health & Business Writer

Copywriter & Content Marketer

Mildred had no idea that her bones were brittle until she tripped over a grandchild’s toy and broke her hip. Mildred was 61 at the time. Her recovery left her with a slight limp and a major stiffness each morning but she managed to get around, This past summer she celebrated her 70th birthday and she has fallen twice in the past 9 years breaking her wrist and her pelvis.

It may not sound like it but Mildred is one of the lucky ones according to the statistics. First of all most people who break a hip are over 65 so Mildred probably wasn’t even counted in these numbers. Out of those who are over 65 and break a hip only one out of three will regain their independence. One out of four or 25 percent will die during the year after their fracture. What’s more nearly half of those who do survive can’t walk without aid.

A BROKEN HIP IS THE SECOND LEADING CAUSE OF ADMISSION TO NURSING HOMES.

Yes these people, most of whom are Caucasian women, do have osteoporosis. The problem is the osteoporosis didn’t just show up when they turned age 60; it started decades ago when the women were in their 30′s. That’s when we have a better chance of preventing it or at the least, reducing its progress.

Here’s another interesting number. When a group of women, 75 years or older, were asked would they rather die or break a hip and end up in a nursing home, close to 80 percent said they’d prefer dying.

Tell this story to your daughters, granddaughters and nieces! They need to get moving now.

So do your sons and nephews because osteoporosis does impact men. The rates are just lower at every age.  Even so, a man aged 50 or older is more likely to break a hip during his lifetime than to get prostate cancer.

Makes you think, doesn’t it?

Back in 2002 Marian T. Hannan of the Harvard Medical School and the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for Aged in Boston reported that people are fracturing more than they used to at the same age. It’s still going on and nobody knows why. At least not for sure.

Over 10 million Americans are thought to have bones so porous that they are diagnoses with osteoporosis. Another 20 million have bone loss that doesn’t quite add up to osteoporosis but it is still high enough to raise their risk of fracture.

Public health experts like Hannan are telling us that bone loss and hip fractures are epidemic in people over 65 and the cost of osteoporosis on public health is huge. She also says that up to 25 percent of people in nursing homes are there because of a hip fracture. Not only is it debilitating and expensive but it is life altering.

Interestingly, science isn’t quite sure why people lose bone as they age, but they do know how it happens. More on that in my next post.

Do you have any relatives or friends that are in a nursing home because of a hip fracture? What happened to their life style? Let us know in the comment box.

To your success at healthy aging.
Ruthan

Ruthan Brodsky
Health & Business Writer
Information Marketer

There are many reasons for mild to moderate fatigue besides the medical ones we mentioned in the previous posts. The one that I am frequently guilty of is dehydration. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the summer or the winter.

If I’m out and about, walking or exercising or playing golf I will drink water. I carry it with me and I drink. If I’m sitting at my desk, on the other hand, I drink coffee which is a type of diuretic. The water bottle is on my desk but my hands are busy type or writing and I don’t drink.

Fluid loss is very common and often overlooked as a cause for mild fatigue. It sounds simple enough but take it from me it requires a mindset. Dehydration occurs when the output exceeds the input which stresses all your systems.

The standard recommendation is four 8 ounce glasses of water a day and double or triple that if you’re active. Many people say we should be drinking 8 glasses. If you include the juice and at least some of the coffee I probably get close to that when I do consume the coffee. The problem with drinking all this is that as you get older you tend to not realize your thirst.

Apparently as little as a 2 percent fluid loss can cause fatigue and dizziness and mess up your short term memory. I’ve been told that if you are thirsty then you are already dehydrated.

Believe it or not, another cause for mild fatigue is inactivity. Your body needs to rest and it also needs to move. It seems counterintuitive to say that inactivity can make you more tire but its part of that old expression: if you don’t uses it you lose it. And think about some of those weekends where you stayed around the house and were more tired than if you had gone to the office for the day.

When you don’t get up and move your energy producing mechanisms weaken. For example, regular exercise helps regulate your metabolism and tunes up your circadian rhythm by getting 4rid of the high levels of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline.

And then, of course, what you eat may not make you tired but it also may not give you the energy you need to carry out your day. You need to know that stress and adrenal fatigue can lead to binge eating. A body running on the stress hormone cortisol needs a quick source of energy so your brain signals that it’s looking for nicotine, or caffeine or sugar that will go straight to the blood stream. The problem is these are only temporary reinforcements and your body comes crashing down rather quickly.  Limiting sugars and carbs and eating 3 balanced meals a day will do much to eliminate fatigue caused by poor nutrition.

The key is not to ignore mild symptoms of fatigue. If any last for more than 10 days make an appointment with your doctor to rule out any medical conditions.

To your healthy aging,

Ruthan

Ruthan Brodsky
Information and Content Marketing
Copywriter

One of the things that I’ve learned about stress is that it tends to feed itself. What I’m referring  to is that the symptoms of stress, such as insomnia, fuzzy thinking and fatigue, often lead right back to stress and make it worse. Sometimes it seems like you’ll never get out of the loop.

Each of us handles stress differently depending on our emotional and lifestyle patterns. No one seems to have time for a good heartfelt conversation, least of all doctors who hand out prescriptions for antidepressants and sleeping pills and tell you to relax. Of course, it’s never quite that easy. In fact, being told to relax can lead to more anxiety and more stress because you’re not obeying your doctor’s orders.

Very often people with chronic disease aren’t sure what’s going on and are very concerned about what’s wrong with them, and well they should be. Yet often it just makes sense that someone could be tired because they work 40 hours a week, care for an elderly parent and are helping out a daughter who moved back home with her two toddlers because of a divorce. Who wouldn’t be tired and stressed in that circumstance?

The problem is when fatigue becomes chronic and undermines our lives. Under these conditions if you were to seek help for being tired, your health care provider would probably think your symptoms were normal. Fatigue is usually treated as a symptom and the first step of almost every doctor would be to rule our any serious medical condition that may be causing the fatigue. The next steps vary because fatigue by itself isn’t considered a disease.

The problem arises when a once mild pattern of fatigue persists and then worsens and a good night’s sleep doesn’t provide any relief. Fatigue becomes a downward spiral. It may have been triggered by a lost job, a bout with the flu, or a spouse who snores a lot and loudly.

Symptoms of fatigue tend to build slowly and then worsen. They may include:

• Feeling exhausted

• Being tired in the morning even after a night’s sleep.

• Feeling overwhelmed

• Headaches and joint pain

• Uncharacteristic muscle soreness

• Depressed

• Poor, short term memory

• And food cravings.

The experts say the key to not having chronic fatigue is to not ignore the symptoms of mild fatigue. My advice is to pay attention to  you, listen to your body and use your own common sense when it comes to being tired throughout the day.

What are some of the things you do when you become tired during the day? If it works for you will you let us know so that someone else may benefit from your tip. Just type your response in the comments section.   Thanks

To your healthy aging.
Ruthan

Ruthan Brodsky
Copywriter & Information Marketer
Health & Business Writing

Everyone feels run down on occasion. Those who are 50 and older tend to blame their age when they feel tired more frequently than usual.

To be honest it is true that your body does change as you age. Any look in the mirror will simply confirm what you already know. As you get older you lose muscle mass  because the number and size of muscle fibers declines with age. Less muscle does mean certain types of physical activities are going to be more tiring.

However, there is normal fatigue and abnormal fatigue and sometimes they are hard to tell apart. Then there are causes for fatigue that can be immediately reversed such as taking you off medications that make you tired.

Diagnosing fatigue has been a medical challenge for centuries. It ranks right up there with pain as one of the primary reasons people make appointments with their doctors. The problem is the concept of fatigue is subjective. For instance, what you feel as being very tired another person may feel they are wide awake.

The medical definition of fatigue is “loss of power or capacity to respond to stimulation”. That definition doesn’t tell me very much   What does provide more information are the common sources of fatigue because they give you a source where you can start managing your fatigue. For instance, not sleeping well can make you tired most of your waking hours. Your physician may want to check you out for insomnia or sleep apnea, or hard snoring. There are other sources of take and most of them can also be controlled to a great degree.

The point of all this is fatigue is a symptom of hundreds of diseases so it’s something that does require your attention. You need to find out if there is an  underlying health condition that is making you feel that way. Getting older is certainly a reason for the many changes taking place in your life but it may not be the culprit for your fatigue.

After ruling out sleep problems or medications as possible causes for your chronic fatigue, one of the first things your doctor will probably do is check your blood for anemia which is a lower than normal red blood cell count. Anemia also has many causes but the most common one results from blood loss that you might not be aware of. You may have internal bleeding from stomach ulcers or hemorrhoids or inflammatory bowel disease or cancer of the stomach and colon.

Your doctor will probably also check whether you are having any thyroid problems. Interestingly, both Hypothyroidism, when your thyroid gland doesn’t produce enough thyroid hormone, and hyperthyroidism, when it produces too much, can make you tired.

If neither of these are the culprits for your chronic fatigue your doctor will investigate other possibilities such as mononucleosis, urinary tract infection, hepatitis and a myriad of other possibilities.

More on fatigue and how to get your energy back on my next post.

To your healthy aging,

Ruthan

Ruthan Brodsky
Business & Health Writer
Content Marketer & Copywriter

I’ve said it before: if you see yourself as being old the changes are good that you are going to feel old. Older people who were told they’re being tested to find the effects of aging on memory do worse on the exam than people who take the test without it being linked to age.

What is wonderful about getting older is that there is now evidence to show that if you think of yourself as younger you can:

• Reduce your risk of disability.

• Reduce your risk of high blood pressure.

• Have higher self-esteem, well being and life satisfaction;

• More social connectedness;

• Be able to think better; and

• Have a better memory.

One study showed a group of  people, ages 55 to 74, who identified themselves as younger as being more optimistic and more confident about maintaining their memory. Other studies showed that people who feel younger tend to live longer.

Studies are trying to connect perceptions of aging and living longer  and the conclusions are that when you feel younger you are more likely to exercise, avoid risks and have fewer stress related health problems.

Guidelines for staying forever young are like a chapter out of the Norman Vincent Peale book, The Power of Positive Thinking. I think it’s still in print; it was published about 75 years ago but the concepts still work.

The guidelines are:

• Concentrate on the positive aspects of aging such as gaining wisdom and experience.

• Cultivate optimism. Count your blessings and eliminate the negative people from your life when possible.

• Maintain a support network.

• Make connections with younger people and view yourself as a peer.

• Stay active and engaged.

It’s all about being young at heart.

To your healthy aging
Ruthan

Ruthan Brodsky
Content Marketer & Copywriter
Health & Business Writer

As you get older, people you encounter may view you with that typical negative stereotype image that identifies older as being second class citizens. I admit to being concerned about being perceived of as old. In fact, I recall the first time I became aware that I was no longer young. That was when the gas station attendant called me “mam.” I think I was 33 years old.

If you have ever been to a high school or college reunion it becomes obvious that we all age differently. The home coming queen may look 10 years older than everyone else while the nerdy debater looked gorgeous and showed  a lot of energy. The fact is all of our chronological clocks are set at the same rate but our biological clocks probably differ.

I try my best to keep in mind that the essential part of ourselves, whether you call it spirit or soul or mind, is ageless. That’s what enables us to identify with our younger friends and encourages us to think of ourselves as ageless.

Even so we ourselves have very strong beliefs about what it mans to get old and if they’re negative, our perspective may be a detriment to our health. There is research to suggest that the age we identify ourselves with may matter more to our well being than even our chronological age.
One research project showed how you and I may think about aging. Forty participants were give a page of text  that was very difficult to read; the font size was small, the room was poorly lit and there was hardly any white space on the page.  Another group were given the same text but in a larger font on a page with more white space and in a brightly lit room. The hard to read page participants felt much older than the easy to read participants even though they were the same chronological age.

In another study one group read a report about how hard it is for old people to learn new things. Another group read that even older people can learn new things fairly easy. Then both groups were asked about their opinions on same sex marriage. Those who were made to feel old expressed more support for traditional values and opposed same sex marriage while the other group did not.

In many ways then, getting old is primarily  a state of mind. Feeling younger than your chronological age, on the other hand,  can positively impact many areas of your life, from memory to life satisfaction.

How do you feel? Old? Younger than your age?

To your healthy aging,
Ruthan

Ruthan Brodsky
Business and Health Writer
Copywriter & Content Marketer

Inside of every older person is a younger person who

looks in the mirror and asks What the Hell happened?

I caught a glimpse of a documentary on the Victoria Secret fashion show and a model in her late twenties was explaining that she was getting too old to be selected as a model. She, of course, was beautiful; they were all long legged beauties although were simply too thin.

Oprah often interviews women who were once considered the IT girls on TV and film, and asks what they think about their aging today now that they are in their sixties and early seventies. Interestingly, few if any of them considered themselves beautiful.

Some people feel they get old when they reach 30. Others don’t think of themselves as being old at age 50 or 60 or 70.  On the other hand, I’ve seen people that look old to me and they are in their forties. I’ve also seen people in their 90′s, usually women, who look and act youthfully.

Although you can’t escape your chronological age, the number of candles on your cake, you can make a difference in how others see you and how you see yourself by how you identify with a particular age.

Alert! Alert   If you are concerned about being viewed negatively because of stereotypes about seniors and older people, did you know you are at a higher risk of self-fulfilling that concern. There’s a study a few years back that shows older people who are told they’re taking a test to examine the effects of aging on memory do worse than people who take the test without being told it is linked to age.

The good news is that if you feel younger than your chronological age there is a good chance your can positively impact most areas of your life including memory and life satisfaction.

My only question to all this is how does anyone know what it feels like to be a certain age? What is 55 supposed to feel like? Or 6O? Or 70? If we don’t know how could anyone else then make a judgment call about what it feels like?

Yesterday I felt old because I attended a funeral for a brother-in-law of a friend. He was only a few years older than my husband but he was diagnosed with brain cancer this August – only 4 months ago. When I came home I thought about several people I’ve known for a long time but never kept updated with them. I was hoping they wouldn’t die before I had a chance to call and say hello

What about you? What makes you feel old?  Type the answer in the comment box and I’ll make connection with you.

To your healthy aging,

Ruthan

Business & Health writer

Copywriter and Content Marketing.

The pattern of being overweight and consuming a diet high in salt or sodium means there are many of us a high risk for developing  high blood pressure, heart disease and other chronic and debilitating diseases.

Interestingly, making sure you consume adequate amounts of Potassium can help you reduce the disease risks and help you lose weight.

The primary reason is that potassium, an essential dietary mineral, helps build muscle, optimizes nerve functions, and helps your body release energy from protein, fat, and carbohydrates during metabolism.

Potassium not only helps build muscles, it also helps the muscles work properly and helps convert the food we eat into energy. Most of already know that the bigger your muscles the more calories you’ll burn. That makes Potassium the good guy because by helping us to build slightly bigger and stronger muscles, it has a direct impact in helping us to increase the amount of calories we burn.

Exercise is a critical component of losing weight. The good news is that Potassium helps you exercise daily because it provides energy, helps muscles work efficiently and ensures the correct electrolyte balance which means you are on tract for losing weight. For those of you who do exercise and sweat, you need to make sure you are replacing your Potassium levels. You do that by eating fruits and vegetables such as cantaloupe or broccoli which are low in calories and very filling.

Keep in mind that the amount of nutrient in a serving depends on the weight of the serving. For example, ½ cup of a cooked vegetable contains more nutrients than ½ cup of the same vegetable served raw because the cooked vegetable weighs more. The raw vegetable provides the nutrient but may not be enough in a ½ cup serving to be considered a good source. However, it is possible to also lose the nutrient value if the vegetable is overcooked. So cook your vegetables lightly. A quick steam usually works well.

Any questions about Potassium. Type them in the comment box and I’ll get back with you. In the meantime, if you have a great source for this important mineral, tell us what you do.

To your healthy aging,

Ruthan

Ruthan Brodsky
Health & Business Writer
Content Writer & Copywriter