Ok............ has anyone heard that larger people have less trouble with losing bone density as they age becasue our bodies are naturally stronger from carrying the extra weight around?
A year ago I was told I had osteoprosis. My doctor told me then that being over weight probably helped keep it from being worse. Carrying all the extra weight was like a "weight bearing exersice" I am happy to tell you that I just got the results back from a bone density test yesterday and it showed an improvement. Thanks to all my walking, calcium + d, and actonel.
I might add that I turned 50 in 2005, I do not smoke or drink and I am not menopauseal. My grandma had osteo but not my mother. I was very surprised when they told me I had osteoporosis.
I have heard that also. I have not seen the results of my bone density test from my surgery but I know the last back surgery I had the doctor said my bones were very strong and for that reason they did not have to put in any hardware. This time there was no choice on the hardware. The type of surgery requires it no matter how strong your bones are.
Making sure you get enough calcium, especially in your teens and 20s, and doing weight-bearing exercise will help you avoid bone loss.
Like jmacway, I was very surprised when told I had osteoporisis because I had bought into that very myth (plus even when overweight I walked for intentional exercise and was lifting weights, although not as much as I do now). I'd taken calcium sporadically, and there's no history of the disease in my family nor do I have any risk factors. Medication still hasn't helped, and I'm a fanatic about calcium now because I'm scared.
So, everyone, especially Apryl and you 20-somethings, please, please take get your calcium daily!!
Yes and No! I broke my leg last year (tibial plateau fracture) and along with surgery and everything else I had a bone density scan done (I'm 40 FWIW).
The bone density in my legs was slightly above normal, the bone density in my hips was well above normal and the bone density in my arms was slightly below normal.
So, definitely take your calcium but yes walking around with the equivalent of an extra person on your back does count as a weigh bearing exercise and does help you with your bone density, but only in your lower body.
I'd vote for no, on the basis that all the people I know who have had badly broken bones from innocuous looking falls (including me!) have been seriously obese at the time. Not a scientific study, but damning enough consequential evidence in my book to make me lose weight! I do think that it's not necessarily that the bones were any weaker though, but that there was extra weight falling on them from the wrong angle as we went down which caused them to snap. A leg buckled under a 260lb person will come off worse than a leg buckled under a 160lb person, no matter how strong it is!
As a person who has lifted weights, and learned about it I would say yes. That being overweight increases bone density. Lifting weights creates more bone density so why wouldn't carring it around on your legs all the time do the same thing? Now I'm not sure that would hold true for your back or your arms, but I would certainly expect you to have denser leg bones and better muscles in your legs (assuming you aren't sitting around all the time which is what a lot of overweight people seem to do).
However the extra weight is horrible on your joints! So too much weight isn't a good thing, and you can always work out to keep your bone density high, you don't need to be overweight and ruin your joints.
Calcium "pills" tend to go right through you without ever even disolving. A better way to get your calcium is through dairy, or sardines where you eat the bones.
When my doctor put me on a medication that can negatively affect bone density as a side affect he said "I'm not worried about that with you" because of the weight. So it's a factor.
