The Calcium Supplement Conspiracy

You’ve seen the ads on TV and heard them on the radio. Women especially suffer from weakened bones after menopause. “Take our daily calcium-rich vitamin pill to re-balance your skeletal system and promote good bone health.”

The truth is that taking calcium won’t make your bones one bit stronger. You have to take extra calcium AND challenge all your skeletal bones with weight bearing exercises.

These do NOT include swimming or cycling. These kind of low-resistance workouts cause your bones to become thinner and weaker over time.

Some activities that put extra weight and stress on the bones include:

• Jogging
• Playing tennis
• Basketball
• Weight lifting

Exercising the various muscle groups with physical weights a couple times a week is the best remedy. (Or better yet, all of the above! Variety is good.)

You need a diet rich in calcium while you’re doing these weight bearing exercises. Drinking plenty of milk or eating dairy products like cheese are better and more natural, but a good calcium supplement will work okay.

Our whole high-protein, high-salt fast food lifestyle leaches calcium from the system, men and women, menopause or manopause. If you can’t consciously drink plenty of milk fortified with Vitamin D (which the body needs to process the calcium), at least buy products like margarine and orange juice that are fortified with extra Calcium and Vitamin D.

Thou Shalt Do No Harm

Of all the advertisements for calcium supplements I’ve seen or heard, I’ve never heard anybody say their product won’t work unless it’s taken along with weight bearing exercises. They don’t even say this in the small print at the end.

I suppose advertisers think people will freak out if you say you must take their product along with a regular dose of exercise. Their priority is selling their product not making you better.

They don’t care if you get worse. Bone weakness is something that won’t show up for many years. All they want is for you to buy their pills for all those years.

If you want good advice on bone health, diet and lifestyle spend some time on the bodybuilding websites. You’ll learn all about good nutrition and good starting exercises for weight-resistance beginners.

Of course, ask your doctor too! Let him lie to your face.

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