Osteoporosis prevention in essentially bedbound person.

[Camilla Cracchi]

Due to a serious illness I've had for many years, I'm
extremely inactive physically and confined to bed most of
the week. Walking or running 20 min a day is absolutely out
of the question. However, I'm approaching menopause and want
to prevent osteoporosis.

What can I do to decrease my risk of osteoporosis if I can't
walk for more than a few minutes? Can I use weights or other
resistance training in bed? A friend in a similar situation
does leg lifts and so forth with weights from her bed. Could
this make a difference?

Are there any studies on osteoporosis prevention in
the bedbound?

Thanks.
___________________________________________________

Camilla Cracchiolo
Registered Nurse
Los Angeles, California

camilla4@mindspring.com webpage temporarily down

[Doe]

>Subject: Osteoporosis prevention in essentially bedbound person.
>From: Camilla Cracchiolo camilla4@mindspring.com
>Date: 7/2/2004 10:29 AM Mountain Daylight Time
>Message-id: <n13be0d9jdon3djqsc128pgtpsj4101tln@4ax.com>
>
>
>Due to a serious illness I've had for many years, I'm
>extremely inactive physically and confined to bed most of
>the week. Walking or running 20 min a day is absolutely out
>of the question. However, I'm approaching menopause and
>want to prevent osteoporosis.
>
>What can I do to decrease my risk of osteoporosis if I
>can't walk for more than a few minutes? Can I use weights
>or other resistance training in bed? A friend in a similar
>situation does leg lifts and so forth with weights from her
>bed. Could this make a difference?
>
>Are there any studies on osteoporosis prevention in the
>bedbound?
>
>Thanks.
> ___________________________________________________
>
> Camilla Cracchiolo
> Registered Nurse
> Los Angeles, California
>
>camilla4@mindspring.com webpage temporarily down

It has been shown once a woman reaches menopause she is no
longer 'protected' by her monthly .. bleeds .. and NOW her
heart disease rate begins to mirror men.

This has now been shown to be related to the increase of
iron levels in the body.

Osteoporosis has now been shown to be an oxidative stress
related disease in that there are lower antioxidant levels
in the body ..

Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2001 Oct 19;288(1):275-9

Association between oxidative stress and bone mineral
density.

Basu S, Michaelsson K, Olofsson H, Johansson S, Melhus H
Sections of Geriatrics and Clinical Nutrition Research,
Uppsala University Hospital, S-751 25 Uppsala, Sweden.
samar.basu@geriatrik.uu.se

Free radicals have been shown to be involved in bone
resorption in vitro and in rodents. We studied the effect of
oxidative stress on bone mineral density (BMD) in 48 women
and 53 men from a population-based study. The levels of 8-iso-
PGF(2alpha) (a major F(2)-isoprostane and a biomarker of
oxidative stress) and a control, 15-keto-dihydro-PGF(2alpha)
(a biomarker of inflammatory response), were measured in
urinary samples and their association with BMD and
quantitative ultrasound (QUS) measurements were examined. In
multivariate linear regression analyses, 8-iso-PGF(2alpha)
levels were negatively associated with both BMD and QUS. In
contrast, no association was found for 15-keto-dihydro-
PGF(2alpha). Our findings establish a biochemical link
between increased oxidative stress and reduced bone density
and provide a rational for further studies investigating the
role of pro- and antioxidants in osteoporosis. Copyright
2001 Academic Press.

PMID: 11594785, UI: 21478991

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Who loves ya. Tom

Jesus Was A Vegetarian! http://jesuswasavegetarian.7h.com (http://jesuswasavegetarian.7h.com/)
Man Is A Herbivore!
http://pages.ivillage.com/ironjustice/manisaherbivore DEAD
PEOPLE WALKING
http://pages.ivillage.com/ironjustice/deadpeoplewalking

[Bj]

"Camilla Cracchiolo" <camilla4@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:n13be0d9jdon3djqsc128pgtpsj4101tln@4ax.com...
>
> Due to a serious illness I've had for many years, I'm
> extremely inactive
physically and confined to bed most of the week. Walking or
running 20 min a day is absolutely out of the question.
However, I'm approaching menopause and want to prevent
osteoporosis.
>
> What can I do to decrease my risk of osteoporosis if I
> can't walk for more
than a few minutes? Can I use weights or other resistance
training in bed? A friend in a similar situation does leg
lifts and so forth with weights from her bed. Could this
make a difference?
>

Resistance work would probably help, as well as keeping your
muscles strong (or at least from getting totally weak from
inactivity).

If you're "starting from scratch" you may not need any
weights for a while anyway. Just lifting your limbs (slowly)
& holding in a raised position can give you a good start.
There are some other similar (minimal or no equipment, no
weights involved) I can think of but not too well right off
the top of my head.

As well as weights (for those exercises that would be safe &
feasable to do in bed) you can get resistance bands (e.g.
Therabands) in various resistance levels (I have a rainbow
of T-bands from my various rehabs!). They aren't very
expensive & take next-to-no room to store.

Consider getting some instruction from a physical therapist
(after checking with your doctor(s) on what your medical-
needs limits might be) for hints, tips, suggestions, a
program (& how to build on it), etc.

> Are there any studies on osteoporosis prevention in the
> bedbound?
>

I don't know about this -- a casual Google look doesn't show
anything obvious. Try Googling on the subject -- a couple of
articles I found concerned the problem in nursing homes, but
I think more about people who have osteo rather than trying
to prevent it. If you're permanently more or less bedbound,
this may be a subject of interest to you anyway.

Also search on weight bearing exercise bed bound (two
words as an alt spelling of bedbound may also help). Best
wishes. bj