Bone Health throughout the Menopause.
Menopause Matters coach, Katie Morris looked at the importance of strength training & how you can best protect your skeleton when going through the Menopause.
Bone health along with heart health should be one of the most discussed topics for women going through the Menopause. This is due to hormone estrogen that’s important for keeping bone density stable & maintaining bone strength, as it decreases throughout the menopause. Due to the ageing process & hormonal changes, the body is breaking down bones quicker that it can replace or repair them, so you’re fighting a losing battle. However, there are ways you can slow down the process of brittle bones or even reverse it!
Osteoporosis:
A progressive condition in which bones come structurally weak & are more likely to fracture or break.
Osteopenia:
Low bone mineral density, the stage prior to osteoporosis.
DXA:
Dual energy x-ray absorptiometry a test to measure low bone mineral density.
T-score:
The units of a standard deviation from the mean 35 year old woman measured by BMD is a negative score means lower BMD than a 35 year old woman. Genetics can play a role into this, however, there’s also ample research to suggest that the lifestyle factors you choose to follow can positively impact your bone health, like:
- Strength exercise 2-4 times per week.
- Exposure to sunlight for 15 minutes a day.
- Adequate protein & calcium in your daily nutrition.
- Avoiding or restricting smoking & alcohol consumption.
Strength training:
Advice for a beginner would be to start training 2-3 times per week minimum & target every muscle group throughout your workouts.
As your body becomes more adapted, you can then target individual body parts for your workouts, for example upper day & a lower day. Even body-weight exercises are strength training, so you don’t need to go straight into heavy weights to see results. Focus on the main movements such as squats, lunges, push-ups, hip lifts & plank hold.
Exposure to sunlight:
Our bodies requires calcium to make our bones strong but we only make small amounts of it without vitamin D.
Vitamin D helps our bodies take in more calcium through UVB rays that are found in sunlight. So, regular exposure to sunlight will increase your calcium intake & indirectly benefit your bone health. To get enough vitamin D, so you want to aim for around 10-20 minutes per day in the sunlight.
