Osteoporosic fractures are much more common than you may think. What many of us fail to realize is that osteoporosis and its prevention are rooted in proactive action. Prevention begins in young adulthood as bone mineralization peaks in our twenties. Both men and women begin to lose bone mass in their mid-thirties.
Since bone mass increases through young adulthood, reaching maximum peak bone mass by age 20, it’s essential to do everything possible to increase your peak bone mass to offset bone loss in later years.
According to a recent survey, 85 percent of people don’t realize that osteoporosis typically goes undetected, with a broken bone often being the first sign of the disease. Here are three tips for becoming proactive about osteoporosis prevention:
1. Get active. Increasing daily physical activity and exercising regularly is important for everyone. Improving muscle mass and strength helps to slow the rate of bone loss. Weight-bearing activities where you are upright, like walking and running, are the best way to do it.
2. Increase your intake of calcium and vitamin D rich foods. Milk, cheese and yogurt are rich in calcium, protein and nutrients that contribute to the development and maintenance of strong, healthy bones. Increased consumption of calcium-rich dairy products has a beneficial impact on fortifying bone density. Milk is one of the rare dietary sources of vitamin D, so try to drink two glasses every day.
3. Adopt a healthy lifestyle. Quit smoking, limit your alcohol consumption and drink coffee in moderation. Get a bone mineral density test if you’re at risk.
You can find more information on reducing your risk of osteoporosis at www.osteoporosis.ca. — News Canada
ProActive Sports Rehab, with offices in Hamburg and West Seneca, offers one-on-one physical therapy and rehabilitation services. For more information, please call 674-9600 (West Seneca office) or 648-8700 (Hamburg office). You can also follow ProActive Sports Rehab on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ProActiveSportsRehab for frequent updates.
With athletes of all ages taking to fields and courts, there are important steps to take in keeping young athletes safe during practice and games.
Data from U.S. Youth Soccer shows that the number of kids playing increased nearly 90 percent — with nearly three million children ages 7 to 17 playing each year — from 1990 to 2014. As soccer has risen in popularity, so has the rate on injuries — especially concussions — according to a Nationwide Children’s Hospital study published recently in "Pediatrics."
The number of youth treated in emergency rooms in the United States due to soccer-related injuries increased by 78 percent over the 25 years covered by the study. While concussions and other "closed-head" injuries accounted for just 7 percent of those injuries, the annual rate of those injuries per 10,000 children playing soccer increased drastically.
While the study’s authors from the hospital’s Center for Injury Research and Policy said some of the increase reflects the growing awareness about concussions, there are steps that can be taken to reduce exposure and increase overall player safety.
Know Concussion Signs Be aware of concussion symptoms and encourage players to report potential injuries. The first signs of a player potentially suffering from a serious head injury can include:
• Headache
• Blurry vision
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Noise or light sensitivity
Utilize Available Educational Resources The National Soccer Coaches Association of America recently released the first interactive online course developed to educate soccer coaches on how to teach safer heading techniques. The free, 30-minute course titled "Get aHEAD Safely in Soccer," which is available at NSCAA.com/heading, illustrates specific techniques, exercises and practice activities that are available for coaches to download or print. For more tips to properly coach young athletes on the fundamentals of heading and other soccer skills, visit nscaa.com.
Practice Proper Technique
The U.S Soccer Federation recently ruled that there should be no heading in games or practice for any players age 10 and under and a limited amount of heading for those ages 11 to 13. It is important that coaches know the correct techniques and have the right educational tools to properly train their players. The fundamental steps include:
1. Keeping feet shoulder-width apart and knees bent in an athletic position
2. Tucking the chin and maintaining a stiff neck
3. Using arms for balance (and to shield opponents)
4. Concentrating with eyes open and mouth closed
5. Focusing on striking the ball with the middle of the forehead
Understand Return-to-Play Protocol Coaches and parents should encourage players to always report blows to the head and be vigilant in looking for athletes who may have sustained injuries. If a player does sustain a concussion, they should seek medical attention and work together with an athletic trainer on proper return-to-play protocol before returning to competition.
By instituting proper athletic safety measures at the youth level, coaches, parents and athletes can continue to enjoy the positive benefits of sports. — Family Features
ProActive Sports Rehab, with offices in Hamburg and West Seneca, offers one-on-one physical therapy and rehabilitation services. For more information, please call 674-9600 (West Seneca office) or 648-8700 (Hamburg office). You can also follow ProActive Sports Rehab on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ProActiveSportsRehab for frequent updates.
Want to live a longer and happier life? It is time to strive for wellness! Wellness is being in good physical and mental health and provides a foundation for overall wellbeing.
Everyone’s routines and habits can be affected by stress (good and bad), life demands, crisis, or trauma. These changes cause emotional, social, and physical imbalances. One of the best ways to combat this is to establish healthy habits that promote wellness. As a result, satisfaction improves, connections to supportive relationships are strengthened, and energy increases.
Wellness can improve quality of life and increase years of life. Focusing on health and wellness is especially important for people with mental or substance use disorders. These individuals are likely to die decades earlier, mostly due to preventable, chronic medical conditions.
Carlton Speight, public health adviser with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), says, “Many people who have experienced these disorders can achieve a full and satisfying life in the community, especially when they can access effective services and support systems.”
That’s why SAMHSA launched the Wellness Initiative, which promotes improving mental and physical health. A hallmark of the initiative is the Eight Dimensions of Wellness, a step-by-step guide to establishing healthy habits.
The Eight Dimensions of Wellness:
1. Physical Wellness: Promoting good physical health habits like nutrition, exercise, sleep and appropriate health care lead to a healthier body. Creating these healthy routines and making sure there is balance with other day-to-day tasks can help, even when a person is challenged with stress or illness.
2. Intellectual Wellness: Learning new things and keeping the brain flexible can help expand intellect. Activities like learning about current events or organizing game nights in your home or community center can keep the brain healthy and active.
3. Financial Wellness: Considering how to manage income, debt, savings and future financial stability are key to financial wellness. Starting to slowly save money or pay down debts can help increase wellness and awareness of available resources.
4. Environmental Wellness: Improving life also includes feeling and being in a safe, stable environment. The benefits of clean air, food, and water, along with occupying and preserving pleasant environments, support your happiness. Learning, contemplating, and relaxing in natural spaces builds healthy perspective and balance.
5. Spiritual Wellness: Taking time to focus on personal beliefs and values — if this is personally important — increases wellness. It includes the search for meaning and purpose in human existence, and developing an appreciation for life and the natural forces that exist in the universe.
6. Social Wellness: Healthy relationships with friends, family, and community are a part of overall happiness and support. Having an interest in and concern for the needs of others and humankind is also a part of building social wellness.
7. Occupational Wellness: Activities — including employment — should provide meaning and purpose and reflect personal values, interests and beliefs. Having work-life balance, promoting open communication in work relationships, and striving for accomplishment builds contentment and wellness.
8. Emotional Wellness: Honoring personal strengths, while also recognizing when help may be needed, creates a more balanced life. It becomes easier to express feelings, adjust to emotional challenges and cope with stressors. — NAPS
ProActive Sports Rehab, with offices in Hamburg and West Seneca, offers one-on-one physical therapy and rehabilitation services. For more information, please call 674-9600 (West Seneca office) or 648-8700 (Hamburg office). You can also follow ProActive Sports Rehab on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ProActiveSportsRehab for frequent updates.
As Americans age, one element seems to be key for their mental and physical health: optimism. That’s the finding suggested by a new Humana survey, which asked Americans age 60 and over how they perceive the importance of various wellness traits.
Although the survey uncovered many perspectives, the findings about optimism suggest a possible link between a "glass half full" mentality and mental and physical health:
• Older Americans who rated themselves as very optimistic about aging tended to be the most active physically and socially in their communities.
• They also reported a much lower number of physically unhealthy days per month on average: 2.84 for the most optimistic, compared to 12.55 physically unhealthy days for the least optimistic.
• The most optimistic also felt on average 12 years younger than their actual age (those who are least optimistic felt on average seven years older than their actual age).
The survey also asked respondents to rate how they feel about the depiction of people age 60 and over in pop culture — in film, television, commercials and so on. Overwhelmingly, the respondents perceived these media portrayals of their own demographic as inaccurate, rating the accuracy level as, on average, five or less on a 10-point scale. Those aging Americans who do feel that media accurately portrays them think about aging more than the average and have a higher level of fear about aging than their peers.
— NewsUSA
ProActive Sports Rehab, with offices in Hamburg and West Seneca, offers one-on-one physical therapy and rehabilitation services. For more information, please call 674-9600 (West Seneca office) or 648-8700 (Hamburg office). You can also follow ProActive Sports Rehab on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ProActiveSportsRehab for frequent updates.
It’s been ingrained in our heads since we were little: building strong bones is important. The problem is that these days many children aren’t getting the daily recommended diet and exercise needed to do so. And, with technology use at an all-time high, children are spending less time playing outdoors, which increases the risk of obesity.
Today, approximately 32 percent of American children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 are considered overweight or obese. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) and ProActive Sports Rehab want to help empower families to get up, get out and get moving to ensure optimal bone growth and reduce the risk of osteoporosis and other diseases later in life.
"Building your child’s bone bank is like a college savings plan — the earlier you start investing, the better," says AAOS spokesperson Dr. Jennifer Weiss, a pediatric orthopaedic surgeon at Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles. "Parents should ensure that kids are getting adequate calcium to keep their bones strong as well as appropriate levels of vitamins D and C to allow the body to absorb the calcium."
So what’s a parent to do? The following tips from the AAOS will help get your kids (and you) moving while building better, stronger bones:
• Move it. Make physical activity a part of a child’s schedule for at least 30 to 60 minutes per day. Make it fun. With fall weather here, walking around the block to see the colors, throwing a football in the yard or riding a bike is a perfect way to engage with your kids and still get in some exercise. Bonus? Being outside gets you and the kids some much-needed vitamin D, which also helps build strong bones.
• Watch what you eat. Life is busy, which makes on-the-run snacks and meals an easy fix for harried parents. Unfortunately, most of this kind of food does not have the nutrients to ensure good bone health. Adolescents should consume a healthy diet with calcium to maintain strong bones and lower the risk of excessive weight gain.
• Lift things up, and put them down. Studies show that strength training is key to healthy bones. During resistance training, muscles have to work harder and, over time, become stronger. Although resistance exercises focus on increasing muscle mass, they also put stress on bones and have bone-building capacity.
• Set limits. It’s understandable that kids’ whims change with the seasons, as do the number of teams they want to play on. However, try to limit the number of teams a child plays on in one season to avoid overuse injuries. In addition, if your child tells you that something hurts, discourage him or her from playing through the pain. — NewsUSA
ProActive Sports Rehab, with offices in Hamburg and West Seneca, offers one-on-one physical therapy and rehabilitation services. For more information, please visit https://proactivesportsrehab.com or call 674-9600 (West Seneca office) or 648-8700 (Hamburg office). You can also follow ProActive Sports Rehab on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ProActiveSportsRehab for frequent updates.
As the weather gets colder, it can be harder to motivate kids to step away from their computers and devices and get off the couch. However, it’s essential for kids to participate in active play all year round. According to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, regular physical activity helps build and maintain healthy bones and muscles, promotes psychological well-being and reduces feelings of depression and anxiety.
Sadly, physical activity is becoming less of a priority in kids’ daily routines. A recent survey conducted by Let’s Play, an initiative from the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group to make active play a daily priority, found that 64 percent of parents said busy schedules stand in the way of more active play for their children, up from 56 percent in 2015.
Each season brings its own opportunities for play, and fall is no exception. Families can beat the cold weather blues and stay active together by trying some of the following activities:
Plan a nature walk to find inspiration and materials for art. Even though it’s chilly outside, your family can still get out and enjoy the outdoors. Bundle up and take a nature hike with your kids around the neighborhood or at a local, national or state park. Encourage your kids to collect items like pinecones, acorns and leaves as you go and to be on the lookout for wildlife to observe. After the hike, take out art and craft supplies and help them create projects with the items they found.
Plan an indoor scavenger hunt. When a really cold day comes along, send your kids on a fun and active scavenger hunt around the house, searching for items that you can hide in advance. Work together as a family to locate the items or create some friendly family competition to see who can find all the items first. Having the family move around the house with a mission prevents the temptation of staying on the couch in front of the television all day.
Join a class or indoor sports team. Whether you are playing a favorite sport or learning a new one, it is always more fun with other people. Longer stretches of active play are often more likely to occur with friends or siblings. Sign your children up for an indoor sport or class they have never tried before, such as gymnastics, rock climbing, swimming or dance. This allows your children to learn something new, meet kids their age and be active for an extended period of time.
Volunteer. While giving back is always in season, this time of year is a perfect opportunity to teach kids about giving back to those in need and being grateful for what they have. Sign the whole family up to volunteer at a local soup kitchen, participate in a toy drive for a children’s hospital or help out at an animal rescue shelter. Your children will not only be active, but will also grow emotionally, socially and intellectually as a result. — Family Features
ProActive Sports Rehab, with offices in Hamburg and West Seneca, offers one-on-one physical therapy and rehabilitation services. For more information, please visit https://proactivesportsrehab.com or call 674-9600 (West Seneca office) or 648-8700 (Hamburg office). You can also follow ProActive Sports Rehab on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ProActiveSportsRehab for frequent updates.
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