Not Really. But we risk breaking our bones if we don't take care good of them. Calcium is the first thing that comes to our mind when we think of bone health. And calcium is synonymous with milk thanks to excellent marketing by the dairy industry. But milk was not part of our typical diet until 50 years ago. Cattle was bred in Tamil Nadu for agriculture and transportation purposes. On top of it, majority of the adult human population is lactose intolerant. But our ancestors did not fall apart due to weak bones. How was that possible?
Many parts of our body aptly fits with the saying, "Use it or lose it".That's what our ancestors did. They spent all their waking time outdoors doing various types of physical work. If you just look at the household chores like cooking, washing, and sweeping, different joints in our body would be regularly used and they all get stronger. I pick on typical chores of women intentionally as you will see later. Dr. Thomas Lloyd at the University of Pennsylvania found in his study that kids who exercised the most had the most bone density and not the ones who consumed the most calcium. By the age of 18, 98% of our bone mass is formed. So, we need to exercise more to have healthy bones, particularly when we are younger.
As always there are other factors in play. We know that Vitamin D is needed to absorb calcium. Sunlight on our skin activates Vitamin D production. Remember the time when we used to play outdoors under the hot sun. We don't do it anymore nor our kids. So, we have come to rely on Vitamin D tablets for something which is available for free year round. There are parts of the world where it is cold and cannot get enough sunlight even if they wanted to. But our excuses are superficial. Our skin will get darker if we go out in the sun. The fairness craze started out with our women and now has extended to our men as well. Our culture dictates that women must be fully cover their skin when going outdoors.
So, gulping down milk without Vitamin D does not provide our body any calcium. On top of it, it could even lead to loss of calcium as calcium is extracted from our bones to digest the milk proteins. Adults typically dont drink plain milk. Milk is consumed in the form of coffee and tea with added sugar even though milk has sugar in the form of lactose. All dairy products like ice cream, milk shake have added sugar. Excess sugar also causes our body to lose calcium [1]
The reason I call out women in particular is because of their gender. No, I am not misogynist. Women get more protections than when they are in child-bearing age. It is nature's way to encourage procreation. But once women hit menopause, all the extra protection goes away. As a result, their bone is impacted. See Figure below.
As we can see, when women hit menopause, there is a steep loss of bone mass. Loss of bone mass leads to lower bone density. Lower the bone density, weaker the bones are. Weaker the bones, more prone to fracture. Its not all gloom. There are couple of ways to deal with it. One is to increase their peak bone mass as much as possible when they are young. Thats what Dr. Thomas Llyod found in his research. Physical exercise is not only for boys. Our girls need it more. We need to create a safe environment for our girls to exercise outdoors where at the minimum their forearms and legs are exposed to the sun. The same applies for our women, particularly after they hit menopause. Exercise is better and safer option to knee and hip replacement surgeries which are becoming common these days. Dont you agree?
To better bone health!
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