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Dr. Low Dog discusses what women can do to protect their bones.
Dr. Low Dog:
Exercise and resistance training is very, very important for maintaining bone health and then making sure you are getting adequate amounts of calcium and vitamin D. Now we have focused a lot on calcium over the years and very little on vitamin D, which I think is probably backwards. Calcium is important, but vitamin D is the real powerhouse if you are looking at preventing spinal and hip fractures.
The best of the evidence shows that women need around 1200 mg of calcium and around 800 units of vitamin D3 to prevent spinal and hip fractures, especially as we age.
Now when I say 1200 mg of calcium, that means 1200 mg of calcium in your diet and what you don’t get in your diet, you make up for with supplements. It doesn’t mean that you have to take 1200 mg in supplements, okay? So that should be what you are getting in your diet in that.
800 units of vitamin D3, most women 50 and over should probably be taking somewhere between 800 and 1000 IUs of vitamin D3, especially if you live you know, north of Denver, anywhere north of Denver because your vitamin D winter, meaning that you can’t get enough vitamin D in your winter months is very real. So we are seeing an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. So calcium and vitamin D, very important.
About Dr. Tieraona Low Dog, M.D.:
Dr. Tieraona Low Dog’s extensive career in studying natural medicine began more than twenty-five years ago. She studied midwifery, massage therapy, and was a highly respected herbalist, serving as President of the American Herbalist Guild and running a teaching clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico before receive her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. She currently serves as the Director of the Fellowship at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine.
Visit Dr. Low Dog at her Web site