DR MICHAEL MOSLEY: How press-ups can hold your bones younger (It definitely works for me!) 

Because of hours spent within the library, I as soon as knew the identify of each one of many 206 bones within the physique, together with my favorite: the innominate bone, which suggests ‘the bone with no identify’. You’d comprehend it as your hip bone.

Extra just lately my curiosity in bones has gone from theoretical to very private.

I just lately had a DEXA scan (a kind of X-ray that measures bone density) and found that though I’ve the backbone of a 30-year-old, my hips are starting to point out indicators of bone thinning, a precursor to osteoporosis.

I shouldn’t have been shocked (although I used to be) as a result of osteoporosis runs in households — and my mom, who’s 93, has it, which primarily impacts her backbone and infrequently leaves her in lots of ache.

As you become old, the danger of growing osteoporosis soars. Osteoporosis causes your bones to turn out to be skinny, fragile after which fracture.

The charity Age UK says that round three million folks within the nation have the situation, however ‘worryingly few’ know they’ve it till they break a bone.

It’s so widespread that half of all ladies and one in 5 males over the age of fifty will break a bone due to osteoporosis.

Ladies are particularly weak, partly as a result of their bones are thinner to begin with and so they undergo the menopause, when ranges of the feminine intercourse hormone, oestrogen, which performs a significant position in bone well being, fall.

Center-aged ladies, particularly these with a household historical past of osteoporosis, might wish to take into account HRT (hormone substitute remedy) as a result of it’s a confirmed technique to forestall osteoporosis. When you have osteopenia(weak bones) or full blown osteoporosis, it’s possible you’ll be provided a variety of therapies, together with bisphosphonates, corresponding to alendronic acid, which slows down the speed at which bone is damaged down.

However prevention is best than remedy, so what are you able to do to maintain your bones in fine condition?

The primary and smartest thing to do is to emphasize them. Your bones reply properly to train, notably something that entails lots of affect and compression.

Skipping, soccer or tennis are particularly helpful for bones, so in case you have been impressed by Wimbledon, get out on the courts. Resistance train (constructing muscle) can also be good.

One purpose why I’ve the backbone of a 30-year-old is as a result of I do various press-ups. They not solely assist construct muscle, however are additionally nice for the bones in your backbone. I do between 35 and 40 press-ups each morning (in any other case I by no means will).

The key to doing press-ups is to begin regularly and construct up slowly. To make sure you have the proper method, Google ‘NHS press-ups’.

The explanation that the bones in my hips, in contrast to my backbone, are displaying indicators of thinning is as a result of I’m not doing sufficient affect train. I do lots of biking and brisk strolling, that are nice for the guts and lungs, however don’t construct bone.

A couple of years in the past I made a movie the place we in contrast the bone power of quick bowlers, gymnasts and Olympic cyclists. Though the cyclists have been extremely match, their bones have been surprisingly skinny.

So I should begin doing a bit extra affect train, corresponding to operating. I actually don’t take pleasure in it, however, for the sake of my hips, I should grit my tooth and get on with it. Nevertheless it’s not solely train, weight loss plan, too, is important for sturdy bones.

You will need to get loads of calcium in your weight loss plan, because it combines with different minerals to offer bones their power. The perfect sources are dairy, sardines, almonds, leafy inexperienced veg and tofu. The issue with so many individuals ditching cow’s milk in favour of replacements corresponding to oat milk is that, until they’re fortified, they’re unlikely to have as a lot, or any, calcium.

It’s also important to prime up your vitamin D ranges, as this helps your physique to soak up calcium. To try this, exit within the sunshine with out solar cream on for between 20 and 40 minutes, relying on how darkish your pores and skin is (however don’t burn).

Prunes may additionally be a very good possibility. A current evaluation of medical trials discovered that asking folks to eat 100g a day — about ten prunes — led to improved bone density.

The researchers, from Penn State College within the U.S., stated prunes set off adjustments within the intestine microbiome that appear to be good in your bones. As properly, in fact, as protecting you common.

We all know that listening to music can assist relieve ache. For instance, analysis in 2015 on the Kids’s Hospital of Chicago allotted a gaggle of youngsters, who had simply had surgical procedure, to both hearken to an hour of songs by Rihanna and different singers of their selecting, or to audiobooks or silence. Those that obtained the music or the audiobooks reported much less ache. So how does music assist? A brand new report within the journal Science reveals that in mice, listening to music reduces the depth of ache indicators that attain the mind. The analysis might result in simpler methods to deal with ache. In the intervening time, you possibly can at all times hearken to extra songs by Rihanna.

The weight loss plan secret that’s key to an extended life 

I’m at present in Okinawa, a small island off the coast of Japan, filming a sequence about longevity. Their individuals are well-known for dwelling lengthy, exceptionally wholesome lives, primarily because of their way of life and a robust sense of ‘ikigai’, a Japanese idea that emphasises the significance of specializing in issues that give goal and which means to your life.

However though Okinawa nonetheless has the best share of centenarians on the earth, the island is quickly falling down the life expectancy league tables.

Common life expectancy in Okinawa is now 80 for males and 87 for girls. That is near our personal: 80 for males and 84 for girls.

Why has there been such a shift? When researchers gathered information on centenarians in Okinawa within the Sixties they discovered most have been slim and energetic and had low charges of persistent diseases corresponding to coronary heart illness and most cancers.

They ate a standard weight loss plan, with numerous greens and soy merchandise and small quantities of noodles, rice, pork and fish, whereas candy potatoes made up 65 per cent or extra of their weight loss plan.

Candy potatoes are wealthy in fibre, antioxidants, minerals and nutritional vitamins.

However the actual secret to the Okinawan weight loss plan is that it’s low in energy; earlier than World Struggle II (when the present era of centenarians have been rising up), the standard Okinawan was consuming round 1,700 energy a day, whereas within the UK we’re suggested to eat 2,000 (for girls) and a couple of,500 (for males) a day.

Research present {that a} calorie-restricted weight loss plan, so long as it’s wealthy in vitamins, is one of the simplest ways to increase a wholesome life.

After World Struggle II, the brand new era adopted a extra Western way of life and started to pile on the kilos.

The older Okinawans, who caught to a extra conventional lifestyle, continued to flourish, however for his or her kids and grandchildren the fountain of youth dried up. I desire a Mediterranean-style weight loss plan to an Okinawan weight loss plan, however I will probably be taking a more in-depth take a look at the well being advantages of ikigai.

Why head lice are so arduous to shake off

Most dad and mom will probably be accustomed to head lice and the numerous hours it’s important to spend combing them out of your kids’s hair.

Head lice are one in every of three species of blood suckers that infect people.

A couple of years in the past, whereas I used to be making a documentary known as Infested, the producer recommended I infect myself with all three — head, physique and pubic lice — and see what occurred.

My spouse was not eager, so I confined myself to the top lice, which have been surprisingly tough to eliminate.

However when did lice first resolve to decide on people as their house?

A brand new research suggests this began round 90 million years in the past and as our ancestors developed, so did the lice.

Over millennia, lice have demonstrated a rare skill to change hosts when the chance arises, which might clarify why the lice that infect seals, skunks and elephants are all descended from the lice that now infest us.

The truth that we have now this lengthy historical past collectively could also be of some comfort when the children come house from college in September, scratching their heads and shouting: ‘They’re again.’

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