Strength training is known for treating osteoporosis and helping to enhance bone density. It just so happens that strength training can be very powerful in reducing the signs and symptoms of other diseases and chronic conditions such as: arthritis, diabetes, obesity, back pain and depression.

Tufts University completed a strength training program with older men and women with moderate to severe knee osteoarthritis. The results of this 16-week program showed that strength training decreased pain by 43 percent, increased muscle strength and general physical performance, and decreased disability. The effectiveness of the strength training to ease the pain of osteoarthritis was just as potent if not more potent than medications.

Here’s another number crunching fact. Post-menopausal women can lose 1-2 percent of their bone mass annually. Tufts published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association which showed that strength training increases bone density and reduce the risk for fractures among women aged 50-70. What’s more strength training helps with poor balance and improves flexibility, reducing the likelihood and severity of falls.

I am one of those people who believe strongly that you should try other approaches to prevention and treatment before you start taking pharmaceutical drugs for specific conditions and face the consequences of their side effects.  One of those happens to be preventing loss of bone density. Sometimes my opinions have powerful backing such as in 2004, the Surgeon General studied osteoporosis in the United States and wrote a report over 330 pages long about the best ways to promote bone health and prevent osteoporosis and fracture. His advice was to work with nature. His concept of prevention started with nutrition, physical activity and fall prevention as the base. The bottom line is your bones are meant to last a lifetime. In most cases, they don’t need drugs to keep them strong or prevent fracture.

To your healthy aging.

Ruthan Brodsky

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Filed under: Conditions and Diseases • Fitness and Nutrition

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