A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that the number of children breaking their forearms has increased 40 percent in the past 30 years. The change is more dramatic in girls. Many researchers are pointing to soda drinks displacing calcium as a factor in this increase. In another study from the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, researchers found that teenaged girls who drank carbonated beverages have three times the risk of bone fracture as girls who don’t drink sodas at all.

The Harvard Women’s Health Watch (February 2004) suggested that a lack of vitamin D may also be playing a part in an “alarming surge of bone problems”. More than bone may be affected by a lack of the “sunshine” vitamin. Vitamin D supplementation has been found in a Bulgarian study to markedly improve the control of blood sugar in diabetics.

In addition to vitamin D, the cheapest health insurance for the prevention of osteoporosis is fitness, exercise. Researchers at Penn State University and Johns Hopkins University found that exercise is better than calcium for girls' bones. The study showed that even when girls were getting less than the recommended dose of calcium, bone strength was not affected when exercise was a part of the girls’ lives.

Enjoy the sun while doing your favorite outdoor activity…. don't forget your sunscreen.

Disclaimer: The advice detailed in this article assumes that you are a normally healthy adult. The author, publishers cannot accept responsibility for loss or damage suffered by individuals as a result of following advice in this article.


CJM LeBlanc HealthWorks, Centreville Mall, 121-342 Main Street, Shediac, N.B. E4P 2E7, tel: (506)533-8885, fax: 532-8644, e-mail: charlotteleb@rogers.com