Bone density is not something you hear a lot about in the exercise world. We harp on blood pressure, cholesterol, etc., but most poeple think low bone density and osteoporosis only affect old women. Wrong. It's not something that doctors regularly screen for either, so take it upon yourself to have this screening done if you get the opportunity, say at a health fair.
We recently had a bone density screening at work offered by St. Vincent. They perform a scan of your heel which shows your bone mineral density (BMD). The lower your bone density, the higher your chance of bone fractures, breaks, etc. I will admit, I know that my diet is lacking in dairy, so therefore probably calcium, but I was still shocked that out of our whole department, I had the lowest bone density of anyone who was tested! Mine was low enough to be classified as osteopenia--the warning stage leading up to full-blown osteoporosis. Bone density reaches its peak around the age of 30, and from there decreases throughout the rest of life...and I'm only 26 now!
First of all, had I not happened to squeeze in this screening, I would have never guessed or known...so good thing I did! As I was reading through the risk factors, the only ones that applied to me were that I am female, caucasian, and that my diet is lacking in calcium....so only two of which I can impact. I'm not sure if my family genetically has low BMD, so that is one thing I can check into. Since I've been logging my food in My Fitness Pal recently, I ran a report to see how much of my recommeded daily value (RDV) of calcium I was getting (which for women my age is 1,000 mg per day). On most days, I was falling between 40-60% of my RDA. Not good!! I saw 2 days, where my calcium intake was through the roof--like around 110-120% of my RDA. When I investigated further to see what I ate on those days that boosted my calcium so much, I found that both times, a Starbucks latte was what did the trick!!
I have been making a more conscious effort to include dairy in my diet in the past few days. Other sources of calcium include things like almonds, broccoli, which I eat very often, but just not enough apparently. I am going to start taking a calcium supplement as well, but you just really never know how much of the vitamins/minerals that you take are actually being absorbed by the body. For instance, I've known for a few years that my iron is low-- I rarely pass the "test" to be able to donate at blood drives due to low iron. So, I talked to a dietician friend who told me that if you take iron and calcium at the same time, the iron is blocked. So what things block calcium? From my research lately, I've learned that drinking any kind of cola--diet or not--can block calcium absorption. I woudn't say I have a lot of diet coke, but 2-3 per week would be average. I also learned that a way to test your supplement or multi-vitamin is to drop it in 6 ounces of water. If it doesn't dissolve within 30 minutes, that means your body isn't going to absorb it all. Typically, the chewable or gel vitamins are the most effective in this regard.
My only other thought was, I wonder if all this marathon training had any negative impact on my bone density? We're always taught that resistance exercise and activity that includes impact will help increase BMD, but marathon training is obviously beyond just fitness. I have yet to find any correlation here, so I'm sure it was a pre-existing condition.
My takeaway from all this is that I now have permission to eat more ice cream and make afternoon Starbucks runs :)
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