Exercise and movement doesn’t have to be rapid or difficult to be effective – even house cleaning can help by bending and stretching your body to move it. For maintaining healthy bones, choose an activity that calls for pull and stress on the long bones of your body: aerobics, bicycling, skipping and walking.

Exercising should be fun and enjoyable, doing the things that you want to do in your spare time, making it part of your lifestyle and not a special short-lived programme. Exercise should be on a steady daily basis, or at least three or four times a week, not a surge of effort just at weekends.

Do you prefer an outdoor or an indoor activity? And what time of day suits you? Taking into account your own biological clock, the best time to exercise is either early morning or late afternoon, avoiding midday heat or late-night exertions that may keep you awake. Always pay attention to what your body tells you. If you feel uncomfortable, you are probably trying to do too much. Take a break and resume at another time or another day. Try different activities and times before deciding on your fitness routine and making it part of your day. A variety of exercise will keep you interested, not bored, so you stay the course.

Do you want to join an exercise group, exercise with a friend, or exercise alone with TV or video tape? If you exercise alone, and you are elderly, tell someone in case you need assistance. Joining a group can make exercise more fun and stimulating; there are many different organizations offering classes. Ask your local authorities what sports are available at nearby centres:

church or synagogue,

civic centre, recreation centre or senior citizens’ centre,

local college or Further Education authority,

YMCAs and YWCAs,

your firm’s recreation club,

private clubs.

Before joining, attend a class to watch. Is the instructor about your age? Are the people in the class about your age and level of fitness? What are the objectives of the group? What do they think of the programme of exercise? When you do join, don’t compete with others, as each of you is responding to exercise in a different way. Only compete with yourself to bolster your improvements. For aerobics, never dance with bare feet. Avoid injury by wearing correct shoes to cushion the balls of your feet and make sure the floor is carpeted over padding.

*50\114\2*

An anorexic may begin to diet to lose a few pounds, but become so intent on losing weight, with a revulsion towards food, she starves herself until weighing perhaps only 60 or 70 pounds -while still falsely believing herself to be fat.

Hormonal changes occur to make her reproductive system unbalanced, she will become infertile and cease to menstruate because of oestrogen deficiency, she will risk heart failure, kidney failure and liver damage. Nutrition has no chance to build up her bone structure, and with frequent induced vomiting, her teeth decay rapidly with the bile acids that rot the enamel.

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital report that although most of the damaging consequences of anorexia nervosa are reversible with therapy and weight gain, the reduction in bone density might not be. Bone building may resume with a return to normal eating habits, but it may be impossible to compensate for the time when bone growth was impaired.

Reduced bone mass may continue throughout the lives of formerly anorexic girls, making them even more vulnerable to postmenopausal fracturing.

To effect a cure, counselling and individual therapy is vital, if you have a daughter with this disorder, or know a young person on a deliberate starvation diet.

*15\114\2*

A frail, bent old woman totters along slowly with a cane.

Is she your mother? Your older sister?

Or is it you in ten – twenty – thirty years?

Genetically, our bodies have changed little in 40,000 years, and maybe women’s bodies were not meant to endure beyond their reproductive period. With increasing longevity, the problem of brittle fracturing bones is quickly approaching a crisis.

In England and Wales in 1981 there were more than 2400 people over the age of 100. By the year 2010 the postwar ‘baby boomers’ will give the population a sudden overlay of grey, a society of the elderly.

According the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, more than 9 million of the UK population are over the age of sixty-five, and of that number nearly 5.5 million are women.

Maintaining health and vigour in later years may depend on where you live: certain parts of the world — the Caucasus region in the Soviet Republic of Georgia, Kashmir, and Vilacabamba high in the Andes of Ecuador — all claim many inhabitants of well over 100.

When humans first evolved, bodies were designed to last between twenty and thirty years. From around 3000 BC to AD 1900, there was a gain of about twenty-nine years in the average life span. The biological limit is somewhere between 110 and 120 years. Can we alter the fundamental ageing programme in our genes, through genetic manipulation? It may sound like science fiction, but it certainly is possible. There is still much more to know about the genes that regulate longevity.

Originally ‘hunter-gatherers’, human tribes roamed the forests and plains for fruits, fibrous plant materials, roots, nuts, berries and only small amounts of lean meat were consumed when the hunt was successful. Humans naturally exercised muscles to find nutrients in order to survive. Designed for the tropics, skin naturally absorbed the sun’s rays in clear air.

Our lifestyle and nutrition have changed considerably – today most people inhabit cities, with varying degrees of pollution; many have sedentary occupations, and food is as close as the neighbourhood shops, reached by car or bus.

Modern medicine and science have made vast strides in combatting many infectious diseases, and the leading causes of illness and death now are chronic degenerative problems such as heart disease, cancer and osteoporosis. Many health problems can be prevented or alleviated by improved nutrition or a change in lifestyle.

For the past fifty years, the medical profession has officially regarded nutrition as unimportant. But the medical journal The Lancet, now reflects a reversal of this view in more recent articles, veering towards the opinion that nutrition should be a major concern for all of us. The Royal College of Physicians recommends that all adults should remain physically active throughout life -taking more exercise, eating more fibre and less fat and sugar.

According to Dr Robert Butler, former head of the US National Institute on Aging, and now Brookdale Professor of Geriatrics and Adult Development at Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York City: ‘Physical fitness can’t be stressed enough. You need a nutritive diet, and enough exercise to maintain good heart function and increase bone strength.’

A problem of particular importance to every woman is osteoporosis. It is not new: archaeologists excavating in Northern Chile found well-preserved mummies of the Chinchorro culture of 7000 years ago. Among the Chinchorro, 31 per cent of the population had osteoporosis, all sufferers being women and two-thirds of them were under forty.

Osteoporosis is now so common, reaching the proportions of an epidemic, that all women should want to adopt a lifetime of good nutrition and a lifestyle that will protect their bones. The affliction ranks close behind arthritis as a major chronic disease of older people, especially women, and yet to a large extent it could be prevented. Although there is much that scientists do not yet understand about this disorder, evidence suggests that simple changes in lifestyle may prevent, or at least slow down, its development. In many cases, it is needless and preventable!

The key to fighting osteoporosis is understanding what it is, knowing while you are still young if you may be at risk, and what you can do to lessen its effects.

The National Osteoporosis Society estimates that up to 10 per cent of women can expect a broken hip. There are up to 50,000 hip fractures (fractures of the neck of the femur) each year in Britain, especially among women past the menopause, with osteoporosis often the underlying cause. The additional cost of medical care in the United Kingdom (including private and National Health Service treatment) for patients with hip fractures is about ?500 million each year.

Recent studies indicate the highest incidence of these fractures to be in Britain, New Zealand and Sweden. Many suffer from weakened vertebrae and may have chronic spinal problems. It is estimated that one-sixth of these victims die from ensuing complications of their fractures, and countless more are disabled permanently.

So the good news is that people in Western countries are living longer; the bad news is that osteoporosis is becoming a potential problem for greater numbers of women. The question facing each of us is how much we want to take charge to get the utmost out of our lives.

*1\114\2*

Although phosphorus is an essential mineral found in every cell and involved in metabolism, a major component of bone along with calcium, too much phosphorus in excess of calcium intake may lead to a phosphorus-calcium imbalance associated with bone loss. Research with adult animals has clearly shown that too much phosphorus in the diet, or too low consumption of calcium relative to phosphorus, can accelerate bone loss, although this finding in small animals has not yet been established in human beings. Arctic Eskimos of Canada and Alaska lose up to 20 per cent more bone than white Americans, and lose it at an earlier age, where their diet consists largely of walrus and seal meats – rich in phosphorus.

Diet surveys indicate the consumption of two to three times as much phosphorus as calcium, with large intakes of phosphorus derived from meat and animal products, breads and cereals, potatoes, processed foods, beer and soft cola drinks. Many popular foods contain more phosphorus than calcium. Phosphates are in fertilizers, and phosphorus is widely used in food additives and processed foods.

Much phosphorus can be avoided by cutting down (or cutting out) meats and soft drinks, and having fresh whole foods whenever possible. If using processed foods, read nutrition information labels to check the phosphorus content in relation to calcium. Generally, you need to increase your calcium.

*38\114\2*

Many aids to digestion contain aluminium and some have calcium in their ingredients. Which type you choose could be important to your bone mass. When antacids contain aluminium, extra calcium is excreted, with the calcium coming from your bones. A side effect is constipation, but the greatest concern to bone specialists is the aluminium (even in small amounts) that combines with dietary phosphorus and calcium, drawing them out of your body into the urine, thus probably weakening bones and leading to osteoporosis and osteomalacia.

It’s better to alter your meals and/or lifestyle to reduce your indigestion problems without resorting to antacids. But if that is not possible, at least change to an antacid without aluminium. If you are at risk of osteoporosis, indigestion remedies containing calcium would be good substitutes, neutralizing acid and serving as a calcium supplement as well. Examine the labels carefully on antacid boxes and jars, or seek the help of the chemist or your doctor.

Speaking in Manchester at the 1985 Congress of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Professor John Savory, pathologist, said ‘Aluminium toxicity is the most important trace metal related to bone disease.’

In this aluminium-using society, there are other ways the substance can enter our bodies:

•    It is in drinking water clarified by adding alum powder or

aluminium salts (a problem in the North of England, e.g., Stockport and Newcastle, where towns are supplied with water from Pennine reservoirs). Aluminium may also be in drinking water after acid rain has leaked trace amounts of the metal from clay soils into water supplies. Ask your local Water Authority for the aluminium content of the tap water you use for drinking and cooking. If it is high, change to bottled water.

It is absorbed into the skin from some underarm deodorants.

It is added to many foods (household baking powders,

individually-wrapped processed cheeses, pancake mixes, frozen dough, some pickled cucumbers, glace cherries, and ’silver’ dragees for cake decorating).

•    Aluminium cookware can add to your daily intake if pans are

old and worn, especially when salty, acidic or alkaline foods are cooked in them. It would be prudent to look critically at your aluminium saucepans and discard any with pitted surfaces.

•    Do not use aluminium pellets when weighting the pastry of

flans – substitute ceramic or glass beads or dry beans.

*26\114\2*