Osteoporosis is a disease in which bones become fragile and easily broken.  If not prevented or if left untreated, Osteoporosis can continue painlessly until a bone breaks.  These broken bones also known as fractures usually occur in the hip, spine and wrist.  Any bone can be affected, but of real concern are the fractures of hip and spine.  A broken hip usually requires hospitalization and major surgery.  It can ruin a person’s ability to walk without help and may cause extended or permanent disability or even death.  Spinal fractures also have serious consequences, including loss of height, back pain, and deformity.

Your body is constantly changing.  Your family history, the foods you eat, where you live, and how active you are play a part in the adjustments you experience in your body over your lifetime.  Without healthy nourishment and activity, the changes that you’ll experience over time will naturally lead you to damage and disability. 

One in two women and one in four men over age fifty will have an osteoporosis-related fracture in her or his lifetime.  If you understand the natural life occurrences we all experience, you’ll be in a better position to manage and adjust to these changes to maintain long-term health and wellness.

Bone remodeling is a natural process that breaks down and rebuilds bone.  As we grow, the nutrients we take from food contribute to your body’s growth – including your bone growth.  By the time you reach your adult size, around age twenty, the growth process in your bones (called modeling) ends and a new process called “bone remodeling” begins.

This is a normal process that breaks down and rebuilds bone.  Your bones don’t just help you move around, they’re also used as storehouses for important minerals.  Calcium and phosphorous are minerals that make up the structure of your bones and are also held in reserve to use for other important functions. These two minerals are involved in nearly every system of the body. …and when they’re needed, they’re taken from your bones and moved to other areas.

Every time these essential minerals are withdrawn and not replaced, your bones weaken.  This creates an imbalance in the remodeling process.  Your bones are breaking down faster than they are being built.  If you don’t add additional calcium and phosphorous through supplements, your bones will grow increasingly weak and will eventually become brittle (osteoporosis) and break.

To prevent and reverse osteoporosis it’s vital to include a quality calcium formula to maintain strong bones and protect against the onset of osteoporosis.  In addition to taking a calcium-formulated supplement, there are other ways to help prevent bone loss:

• Participate in weight bearing exercise like walking.
• Use resistance bands or hand weights to improve upper and lower body strength
• Eat foods naturally high in calcium like low-fat or non-fat dairy products, canned sardines or salmon.
• Live healthy by not smoking and not drinking in excess.
• Consult your doctor about getting an annual DEXA Scan.

On a personal note, I am sixty years old and about four years ago my bone density test showed that I had osteopenia.  My doctor advised two very popular products to help prevent further bone loss.  I considered the side affects of both of these products and decided to try a more natural approach.  I had another bone density scan taken and I had a significant increase in bone mass.

Osteoporosis can be prevented and reversed by implementing a healthy lifestyle including daily exercise, supplementation and eating a variety of natural and healthy foods.

Antoinette is a fitness consultant specializing in small group and senior fitness. Antoinette provides her clients with the knowledge, support and motivation necessary to get to the next level of physical as well as mental, emotional and spiritual fitness.

Call today to make an appointment for you FREE fitness evaluation and consultation by phone.  We would be happy to assist in matching you up with a program that is right for you.  Contact me at 908-902-1207.

Heart Attack symptoms misdiagnosed in the Emergency Room…..

Taking care of you is essential to living a longer, healthier and more vibrant life.  Just a few years ago, the life expectancy for women reached a peak in modern history with most women living to an average of 79 years.  A big difference from 100 years ago when the average life expectancy for women was a mere 47 years.

These added years of life have created additional health challenges that women from a century ago simply didn’t have to face.  Let’s discuss some of the issues and strategies needed to meet this new and exciting future of longevity and vitality!

Heart attacks and heart disease kill more women than any other cause.  With our advanced knowledge of heart health, this shouldn’t be happening.  With North America having one of the best emergency medial systems in the world, a women’s chance of surviving a heart attack should be very good.  Sadly enough, this is not true.  Women have a death rate from heart attacks that is 70% higher than men.  Two reasons for this is (1) A heart attack in a man does not look like a heart attack in a women and (2) Women’s heart attack symptoms are very misdiagnosed in the Emergency Room.  A heart attack in women is not always the “elephant sitting on my chest feeling that accompanies a heart attack in men.  

A male patient entering an Emergency Room with symptoms of sweating, shortness of breath and chest pain would automatically be diagnosed with having a “heart attack”.  When a woman enters the Emergency Room with flu like symptoms, fatigue, low back pain, jaw pain, shoulder pain and an impending fear of doom, most of the Emergency Room staff assumes this is a “panic attack”.  The unfortunate delay in treatment to differentiate these two conditions may cost women their life.  

Women are different than men.  Yet, medicine assumes that the heart attack symptoms commonly experienced by men are the standard for measuring Emergency Room reactions and treatment.  With aging women outnumbering aging men by more than 2:1, it’s time for the Emergency Room staff to be more aware of women’s unique health needs.  

Research by the National Institute of Health indicates that women often experience new or different physical symptoms as long as a month or more before experiencing heart attacks.  Among 515 women studied, 95% said they knew their symptoms were new or different a month or more before experiencing their heart attack.  The symptoms most commonly reported were as follows:

Unusual Fatigue  70.6%

Sleep Disturbance  47.8%

Shortness of Breath  42.1%

Many women never had chest pains.  Only 29.7% reported having chest pain or discomfort prior to their heart attack and 43% reported having no chest pain during any phase of the attack.

The National Institute of Health Study, titled “Women’s Early Warning Symptoms of AMI” (Acute Myocardial Infarction) is one of the first to investigate women’s experience with heart attacks and how this experience differs from men’s.  Recognition of symptoms that provide an early indication of heart attack either imminently or in the near future is critical to forestalling or preventing the disease.

“Symptoms such as indigestion, sleep disturbance, or weakness in the arms, which many of us experience on a daily basis, were recognized by many women in the Study as warning signals for AMI”, says Jean McSweeney, PhD, RN and Principal Investigator of the Study.  Because there were considerable variability in the frequency and severity of symptoms, she added, “We need to know at what point these symptoms help us predict a cardiac event.”

It is clearly evident that women’s symptoms are not as predictable as men’s.  It is important not to miss the earliest possible opportunity to prevent or ease AMI, which is the number cause of death in women and men.  

Addressing your lifestyle holds the greatest promise for lifelong heart health.  If you don’t change your life, your life will change you - and the changes may be regrettable ones.  As we age, a turn for the worse in heart health is far from inevitable and making changes in your life is easy if you take one step at a time.

Antoinette is a fitness consultant specializing in small group senior fitness. Antoinette provides her clients with the knowledge, support and motivation necessary to get to the next level of physical as well as mental, emotional and spiritual fitness.

Call today to make an appointment for your FREE fitness evaluation and consultation by phone.  We can assist in matching you up with a program that is right for you. The number is 908-902-1207.