Osteoporosis Action Alliance
Berlin (ots)
Health is the best gift! How about giving away a voucher for a joint sports or dance course on Mother’s Day? It’s not only fun, it’s also healthy. Bone health is a particularly important topic for women in Germany: an estimated 5.2 million women in this country are affected by osteoporosis (1). But which sport provides exercise on the one hand and can also promote bone strength at the same time?
Bone is living tissue and bone density reaches its maximum around the age of 30. From then on, more bone material is broken down than newly built up (1). Scientific studies show that moderate exercise can effectively promote bone formation (2). Nordic walking, dancing, fitness courses or similar are ideal for training. If you like, you can also do targeted strength training with weights in the gym. The shock load that occurs during strength training, jumping and running stimulates the growth of bone cells, since these sports involve training with up to eight times your own body weight (3). Walks in the open round off the program and can ensure a sufficient supply of vitamin D in summer. 80 to 90% of this vitamin is formed in the skin when exposed to the sun and is also important for the formation of bones (4,5).
Osteoporosis develops slowly
The risk of developing the disease is relatively low before the age of 45, but increases sharply with age in women after menopause (6). The reason for this is the hormonal changes in the body. Estrogens play a key role in bone formation and a decrease can have a negative impact on bone density (7). Furthermore, a low-calcium diet, a lack of vitamin D and exercise, alcohol and cigarette consumption or certain medications increase the risk of osteoporosis (4,8). If cases of the disease are known in the family, this can also indicate an increased individual risk (9). Warning signs of incipient osteoporosis can include persistent back pain or a loss of height of up to several centimeters over the past few years (4). It is worth talking to a doctor in good time about your personal risk of osteoporosis.
Further information on the Osteoporosis Action Alliance and the KNOCHEN.STARK.MACHER campaign. and on osteoporosis as well as sports exercises to do at home, delicious recipes to cook at home and other downloadable materials can be found under www.aktionsbündnis-osteoporose.de.
DEU-NP-0423-80001
credentials
1 Hadji P, Klein S, Gothe H, et al. Epidemiology of Osteoporosis – Bone Evaluation Study. An analysis of routine health insurance data. Dtsch Doctors Int. 2013;110(4):52-57.
2 Zhang L, Zheng YL, Wang R et al. Exercise for osteoporosis: A literature review of pathology and mechanism. Front. Immunol. 2022 ;13:1005665. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022.1005665.
4 DVO Guideline 2017: Prophylaxis, diagnosis and treatment of OSTEOPOROSIS in postmenopausal women and men – long version.
6 12-month prevalence of osteoporosis in Germany. (Access: 03/29/2023).
7 Osteoporosis and Menopause. (Access: 03/29/2023).
Press contact:
Osteoporosis Action Alliance press office
c/o Medizin & PR GmbH – health communication
Eupener Strasse 60, 50933 Cologne
Email: P [email protected]
Phone: 0221 / 77 543-0
Your contact persons:
Birgit Dickoré, Barbara Kluge and Wiebke Erichsen
Original content from: Aktionsbündnis Osteoporose, transmitted by news aktuell
