Buckeye Sports Nutrition

Bone health is important to an injury-free season.  It is unfortunate but we usually don't worry about osteoporosis (frail bones) until we hit our 40's.  If you do your best to make your bones healthy now, you may not need to worry as much about osteoporosis later.  Research shows that weight-bearing exercise and good nutrition enhance bone density.  For the most part, we accumulate the most bone during and shortly after puberty, but some bones can continue to mineralize through your 20's.  The best time to influence bone health is around puberty. 

Adequate calcium and vitamin D are essential to bone health.  If you are not a milk drinker, you should check the calcium in your diet to be sure you are getting at least 1000 mg per day.  Vitamin D is also required for good bone health and calcium absorption.  Fortunately for us, we can make vitamin D when our skin  is exposed (hands, arms and face) to about 15 minutes of sunlight per three times per week. (This exposure timing can be affected by where you live, time of year and color of skin)  Other minerals are important to bone health but not in mass quantity like calcium.

It is common for female athletes who have irregular or absent menstrual cycles to have less dense bones. In fact, when you put amenorrhea (lack of menses) with anorexia and decreased bone density, it is called the "athlete triad".  Females that eat less than about 1600 kcals and have infrequent menstrual cycles should be concerned about bone health and the potential for injury.

Be sure to build strong bones for health now and in the long term. Foods from the dairy group like milk, cheese, yogurt are rich in calcium- try to get at least 2-4 of these per day.  Many dark green leafie vegetables are also calcium-rich, but our body is not able to absorb as much of the calcium from these sources.  Most studies show that calcium citrate is the supplement form we absorb best and a good calcium supplement will also contain the daily dose of vitamin D.