How to Keep Your Bones Healthy

How to Keep Your Bones Healthy Dr. Travis Stork: Our next question is an email question rom Laura in New Haven, CT. Laura writes, Dear Doctors, my mom suffered from osteoporosis. O am 43 and I want to do everything I can to keep my boned healthy, what can I do? And this brings us to our next key body number, which is bone density. Dr. Vonda Wright: Yes, exactly. You know I'm a bone doctor so these huge bones. Dr. Drew Ordon: Where’d you get these bones doc> Dr. Vonda Wright: If I told you I have to kill you. Dr. Drew Ordon: Is this the like the jolly green giant. Dr. Vonda Wright: These are dinosaur bones just for illustration. But what they illustrate to us our bones are not only just structural but they are filled with the minerals that supply our body, they're store houses. So the bone on my left is a healthy bone. You can see how dense it is, there's not many big holes in it. But the bone on the right has been depleted of all important chemicals and the minerals. And this is what happens to us in osteoporosis. So what's the big deal in osteoporosis? Well, we fracture our bones. Breaking our bone is the number one risk factor for breaking another bone. So it's important for us to know what are bone density so that’s where Dexa scanning which is just x-ray to determine the density of our bones happen. And we reach 60 and have risk factors for osteoporosis, one of which is genetic; we should get it done sooner. Dr. Lisa Masterson: And you're talking about the genetics and actually a lot of times what we’ll do is if you have genetics or other risk factors like thyroid disease, we’ll have that done a lot sooner. In gynecology actually, we menopause or 50, so we actually bump it up a lot earlier for women, but 60 depending on if you're very low risk and things like that. But it's very important to know that there are medications that you can take; there are lifestyle changes that you can make, right? Dr. Vonda Wright: And you know the important thing to realize is the our bones are totally remodelable, is that a word? We can remodel our bones and we actually replace 10% of them a year. And one way to make our bone stronger is impact exercise. Dr. Lisa Masterson: With calcium and Vitamin D. Dr. Vonda Wright: Calcium and sunlight, and everything. Dr. Jim Sears: But that’s one of the most important things impact exercise as opposed to bike riding and swimming. Dr. Vonda Wright: Any exercise is good. Dr. Lisa Masterson: And a lot of times we use that jargon weight bearing exercises. And I didn’t realize because all my patients always say, “Does that mean I have to have weight and stuff? But no, it can just be only your own body weight. Dr. Vonda Wright: Pounding your body. Dr. Jim Sears: Walking and running. Dr. Lisa Masterson: And you have some good tricks for that. Dr. Vonda Wright: I do, I'm going to teach you. Yeah, we should go do it. Dr. Lisa Masterson: Are there jump ropes over there? Dr. Vonda Wright: There are jump ropes. Dr. Lisa Masterson: I can do anything in my heels. Dr. Travis Stork: However, a good point to make Lisa, to all women out there, if you do suffer from osteoporosis, when you fall you have a higher fracture risk. So don’t jump rope in high heels. Dr. Vonda Wright: In the safety of your own home, this is a tool that you can take with you. Dr. Lisa Masterson: This is how I jump rope. Dr. Vonda Wright: I'm so impressed. So jump roping, you can jump rope like you did when you're a kid. You can hop along; you can go really fast in your living room. There's no excuse. Dr. Lisa Masterson: And that is weight bearing exercise. Dr. Vonda Wright: That is pounding your body. It's really good. Dr. Lisa Masterson: So you don’t have to have weight, just your own body weight. Dr. Vonda Wright: Your own body weight is all you need. Dr. Lisa Masterson: I did it in heels, she did it in pearl. This is how real lady doctors. Dr. Vonda Wright: Girls doctors do. Dr. Travis Stork: Lisa, we didn’t see you jump rope. I'm not going to say you’ve jump rope in heels, until I see you jump.