The picture above is a scan of a poster that was offered by the National Osteoporis Foundation in 2002.

It has mpacted me so much (actually it scared me!) that I wanted to share it with you.

The scan was only altered to fade in the words "OsteoProcare can help".
Osteoporosis, the silent disease that makes bones prone to fracture, is a major public health threat for more than 28 million Americans, 80% of whom are women.

In the United States today, 10 million people already have the disease, and  another 18 million have low bone mass, placing them at increased risk for osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis literally means porous bones. Bones that once were strong become fragile. Activities that once were done without a second thought, such as bending over to pick up a newspaper or lifting a grandchild, can cause one fractures in people with osteoporosis (Read Jean's story).

In fact, most people don't know how they have osteoporosis until a bone breaks. At this point, the disease is advanced.

Osteoporosis is called the silent disease because you cannot feel your bones becoming weaker. Bone loss usually occurs slowly over time, without symptoms, until a bone breaks.

The consequences are devastating. 

Calcium, a mineral that, even before birth, plays a significant role in almost all our body functions, including the development and health of our teeth and bones, healthy heart rythyms, colon health,  and ultimately in protecting the body against debilitating bone loss as we age.

The National Institute of Health recommends that, in addition to a healthy diet, adult women have a daily supplemental calcium intake of 1000 to 1200 mg before menopause and 1300 to 1500 mg after menopause.

Although it would be ideal if these recommended amounts could be obtained through the nutrients in the foods we eat, the fact is that both women and men today lead a fast-paced, pressure-packed life that makes this difficult.

Women and men today are choosing multi-vitamin and mineral supplements more than ever before to ensure they get adequate calcium.

Life Force Intl., a liquid nutritional company founded in 1986, tracks research advances in liquid nutraceuticals to ensure that their whole food supplements contain the highest quality and optimum amounts of vitamins and minerals, including calcium.

According to a statement issued by the National Institutes of Health in December 2001, a "calcium crisis" is affecting American youth. "Only 13.5 percent of girls and 36.3 percent of boys ages 12 to 19 in the United States get the RDA of calcium from their diets." This places them at serious risk for osteoporosis, other bone diseases and stunted growth.

Further, research has recently shown that a woman's midlife bones are much stronger if she had adequate calcium intake during her teen years. Because nearly 90 percent of adult bone mass is established by the end of this age range, the nation's youth do indeed stand in the midst of a calcium crisis.

There is no doubt that teens need optimum calcium intakes just like adults, and with their busy lives today, a strong calcium-containing multi-vitamin provides easy, fast nutritional protection.

As a woman ages, her need for calcium continues to be in the forefront of her health concerns. Women generally start to experience an increase in the rate of bone loss at around age 30. Experts now agree that to protect against this trend, whatever else she is doing, a woman must pay close attention to her diet, especially her calcium intake, and at least three times a week perform regular weight-bearing and resistance exercises, such as swimming and weight lifting, both of which improve calcium absorption and bone mass.

After menopause, when the body produces less estrogen than it did during the reproductive years, women lose between 2 to 5 percent of bone mass per year for about five years, after which the bone loss continues but at a somewhat slower rate that is still more rapid than during the premenopausal years. When the loss of bone density becomes serious, bones become brittle, fragile and are more likely to break during even a minor fall.

According to Dr. Robert Heaney, who has been involved in publishing more than 500 calcium studies since 1962, "the calcium requirement for skeletal maintenance is said to rise with age." Dr. Heaney further states that "supplemented intakes of 1300 to 1700 mg per day have been shown to arrest age-related bone loss and to reduce fracture risk in people 65 and older."

In addition, recent scientific research and government recommendations have raised questions about the effectiveness and potential risks of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), causing many women to look for safe, natural alternatives.


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The information contained herein is for educational purposes only. It is not medical advice and is not intended to replace the advice or attention of health care professionals.
Consult your physician before beginning or making changes in your diet, supplements or exercise program, for diagnosis and treatment of illness and injuries, and for advice regarding medications. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, mitigate, cure or prevent any disease. This web site was prepared by an Independent Member and is neither approved nor adopted by Life Force International.

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