Conference turris::womannotes-v2

    I think that's excessive exercise COMBINED WITH inadequate diet.
    
    It's quite common for most women in serious training for
    competetion to become amennorheic, but if they are getting an
    adequate diet with plenty of calcium and iron, their bones may
    actually become more robust.  (The study I know of is a West
    German one used by their athletic teams to design the best diet
    for each competitor.) 

    Exercise and adequate diet, especially in the teen years, help
    prevent osteoporosis.
    
    --bonnie

    The factor that the PBS report homed in on was activity which resulted
    in a harmful decrease in the estrogen level.  One of the indicators
    of such a decrease is lack of periods.  Whether people can put
    themselves in that state even while eating properly was not clear.
    
    I believe it is correct that if someone is not amenoric then exercise
    helps strengthen normal bones (weakened bones need special care
    to prevent further damage -- like exercising in water, but there
    the goal is to build muscle to protect the weakened bones).
    
    Calcium alone is not enough.  The PBS report was fairly complex,
    I urge people to keep an eye out for it.  In summary: bones are
    always simultaneously being torn down and rebuilt.  The estrogen
    controls the rate of rebuilding (I think).  Not enough estrogen
    and things get out of whack.  The good news is that apparently doctors
    can measure what state a woman is in in terms of bone density and
    the rate or tearing down and rebuilding, so if someone is concerned
    they can find out about their own personal condition.
    

    More on prevention:
    
    A chiropractor told my PAthology Class that women have about
    30-35 years to make deposits in the "bone bank". This means
    good diet and REGULAR, WEIGHT-BEARING EXERCISE. (Stressing
    bones makes them create more bone)
    
    The idea is to have made enough deposits so that as you make 
    withdrawals (from about 40 til death), you never "overdraw
    your account".
    
    I do not think that lack of periods is ALWAYS an indicator of
    lack of estrogen. It could be due to marathon running, for
    example, which is connected with fat storage, NOT (REPEAT: NOT)
    low estrogen level.
    
    IF this PBS program was so lax in explaining the facts, I'm surprised
    it was on PBS. Sounds like they needed to be much less vague about
    this subject.
    
    Anyway, gurrls, please exercise, especially if you are still of
    an age to be able to make deposits to that bone bank!
    
    --DE
    

    
    I believe that fat storage and hormone production are connected.
    When the amount of body fat goes below a certain level, "nature"
    says oops, can't let this person reproduce, she needs all her strength
    just to survive.  The people being interviewed on the PBS program were
    M.D.s from a regional bone center where extensive research into
    osteoporous is being conducted.  I forget the name of the center.
     Lest you think I'm pounding this topic into the ground, you should
    have seen the skeletal diagrams of 5'6" women turning into 5'0"
    women.
    

    Re: .4
    
    The level of fat storage isn't the only factor that triggers
    famine response in a woman; inadequate caloric intake is another.
    A number of healthy, extremely fit women with very low body fat
    (Ingrid Kristiansen, Mary Decker Slaney, Evelyn Ashford, Joan
    Benoit Samuelson) had no trouble conceiving when they wanted to. 
    I'm not saying this program you saw was wrong, it just sounds
    like they left something out.

    re: .3
    
    That doesn't mean you give up exercise at 40, though. The doctors
    told my 80-year-old aunt that weight-bearing exercise, in her case
    gentle walking, combined with good diet, would help her reduce the
    rate of bone loss even at her age. 
    
    I remember they told her calcium was still important, as was iron
    and I think zinc? as well as B vitamins and vitamin C.  This was
    after she fell and broke her hip several years ago.  She has been
    following their directions and last spring took a worse fall than
    the one that broke her hip and only got a couple of bruises. 

    --bonnie

    I read in the August 88 issue of Shape Magazine (they had an article
    on eating disorders of the compulsive type combining with compulsive
    exercise to form a whole new category of addiction).  They mentioned
    that they looked into the lives of the 93 top female runners in
    America.  Somewhere around 50% had a history of eating
    disorders (this is off the top of my head, so I have no exact figures),
    but more interestingly, about 70% were amenorrheic.

    They didn't explain why, though.  Just thought the statistic was
    interesting.
    
    -Jody
    

    My cousin (a year older than I am - she is 36 now) is a distance
    runner, and has been anorexic off and on most of her adult life,
    but I never connected the two as she has a rather strange personality
    anyhow (she sort of gets addicted to relationships with men that
    don't work out; it's pretty sad).  She is a few inches shorter than
    I am and probably weighs half what I do -- and, while I am a bit
    heavy ("solidly constructed" is proabbly a better description),
    she is definitely way underweight.  I don't know if she is amenorrheic;
    never asked (it's not one of those things you can discuss with her).
    Frightening idea that aerobic fitness might be both healthy and
    unhealthy!

    A nit, Charlotte - "fitness" is not unhealthy. Distance running
    is over at one end if the bell curve in so far as how it stresses
    the body. 15-20 minutes of aerobic exercise 3x per week will keep
    one at a good level of fitness, and will NOT over-stress the body,
    once you are used to the routine. Distance running will always
    tax the body.
    
    --DE
    

    Read the latest Running magazine article on how runners view and
    treat food.  .7 your relative is not to far off the bell curve as
    a long distance runner.

    Saw a PBS program comparing the bones inthe arms of baseball pitchers.
    The pitching arm significantly more dense and larger bones than the other
    arm.  The point here was that simply the muscles pulling and pushing
    on the bone put enough stress on the bone to cause it to enlarge
    or become stronger.
    
    These were adult male pitchers.  Do humans, do women, do men, do
    only pre-40 adults increase their bone mass?
                      
    OK, SO is exercise the only thing I can do at 49yrs to keep my bone
    mass and size?  Will exercise do any good after all?  I hate to
    see poor posture arruuuugh!!   I have read all kinds of stuff, but
    nothing that says specifically what to do for what result.  \VA

    I base my reply on what the doctors told Neil's 80-year-old aunt
    after she broke her hip several years ago.
    
    It's not clear whether you can build up bone mass after a certain
    age, usually though to be in the early twenties.  You can,
    however, greatly slow the loss of bone mass by getting plenty
    of calcium and exercize.
    
    Yes, exercize will help at any age, but it has to be exercize that
    puts a certain amount of stress on the weight-bearing bones.
    Aerobic exercize per se won't help; non-weight-bearing exercizes
    like ssiming are much less effective.  Walking is highly
    recommended. 
    
    --bonnie

    I've been working out for a while now, and I'm starting to realize
    how important my workouts are starting to be.  It's kind of insidious,
    the way I started with aerobics, then added weightlifting, and dance,
    and the rowing machine...what next?
    
    It feels like I'm afraid to reduce my work out - but I feel a strong
    urge to increase it because I'm afraid if I don't work harder my
    body will return to shamu-size overnight (although this is illogical,
    I know).  I am working on trying to relax and not work out so
    hard...it's eating into my social life and my other hobbies (timewise).
    Along with this workout-dog mentality, I have been trying to eat
    less.  The combination is improving my body - but what cost?  
    
    I am going to try to get a bit saner about things...I didn't gain
    weight in a day - I can't lose it in a day - and I certainly can't
    gain what I've lost back in a day.

    When I first read about the combination of dieting/overworkout,
    I thought it was ridiculous.  Either you strenuously diet, which
    leaves you little energy to work out - or you work out strenuously
    and eat reasonably (or so I thought).  But recently I noticed there
    was this magical, empowered, virtuous feeling when I was able to
    "do it all" - it allayed the panicked fear that I would gain all
    the weight back.
    
    I am currently reading a book called "Transforming Body Image",
    self-hypnosis exercises and rational discussion to help you learn
    to love the body you have (which will help you get wherever you
    want to go body-shape-wise much more easily than if you hate your
    body, or will make you comfortable with staying as you are if that
    is what you choose).  I think the key was realizing the pattern
    - now I can work against that mindset and take a step back and be
    a bit more rational about it.

    I was just really surprised I found a hint of this in my own life...
    
    -Jody