Are you protecting yourself against osteoporosis?

The bone disease osteoporosis doesn't announce itself boldly! It doesn't usually get a diagnosis until someone suffers from hip, wrist, or spinal fractures.

Because our skeletons seem like fixed, solid structures, it's easy to forget that bones are growing, living tissue. In fact, they continually remodel themselves thanks to the efforts of two types of cells--osteoclasts and osteoblasts. In an ideal world, replaced bone--that is, bone tissue that is broken down--would equal absorbed bone. However, there are a few big kids on the block that influence this process:

• Hormones and other body chemicals
• Mechanical stress--weight bearing exercise
• Lack of exercise -exercise helps build new bone tissue.
• Calcium, vitamin D, and other vitamin and mineral intake

 An imbalance can lead to your skeleton losing bone tissue. In fact, this imbalance is the primary cause of osteoporosis - a continual loss of bone from the matrix that creates our skeletons.

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