Monday, June 15, 2009

Why Flamingos Don't Get Osteoporosis

I mention this article in one of my previous posts, but I find this important enough to give it its own posting:

There is a surprising new therapy to increase bone density that may decrease the odds of fracturing a femur or hip as one gets older. Recall the movie, Karate Kid, and download from your memory the image of the kid, balancing on one foot on a log at the beach, seagulls flying overhead. Now imagine an older person in a nursing home, slowly moving about with the aid of a walker doing an imitation of the Karate Kid. What you've got is Dynamic Flamingo Therapy, the invention of researcher, Keizo Sakamoto from Tokyo, and likely the least expensive and least intrusive intervention ever described in the medical literature for preventing hip fractures.

In October 2006, writing in the Journal of Orthopedic Science, Sakamoto described the effect of what he called “unipedal standing” on the frequency of falls and hip fractures in an elderly population. His unipedal standing balance exercise was simple. Stand on one leg for a minute (alternating legs) with your eyes open three times a day. If you need to, hang onto something so you don’t tip over.

Bone density and bone strength is improved by mild stress to the bone, that’s why we make all the fuss about weight bearing exercise. By Sakamoto’s calculations, standing on one foot for a minute would have an effect on bone density equivalent to walking 53 minutes...

Read the rest of this article on the Natural Grocers link.

A similar article is also online at the Denver Naturopathic website.

Check it out for yourself! Your bones will thank you for it.

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