L’Accademia del Fitness photo Nicola De Luigi
training and the elderly:
the fight against osteoporosis Due to the ageing of the population on a world scale, above all in the most developed countries, it is necessary to do something to help the elderly keep their physical and psychic efficiency as long as possible, so that they can be self-sufficient and enjoy an active life. It is therefore fundamental to promote the possibility of exercising, as well as to draw attention to a proper diet and to a life-style deprived of bad habits like smoke, alcohol and stress. It is then fundamental for the elderly to have their skeletal system in good condition, so that they can move and perform exercises properly. The most frequently asked questions are how the human skeleton can keep its efficiency and how to prevent osteoporosis – that is, the disease which slowly weakens bones. First of all, it is important to follow a diet duly rich in calcium and to take vitamin D constantly since it basically protects the individual from any diseases: it prevents from rickets in children and from osteomalacia in adults; it also helps preventing cardiovascular diseases, self-immune diseases, Alzheimer’s,
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dementia and diabetes, which – as recent studies have pointed out – strike more the population living in the northern latitudes of the planet, where there is less exposition to the sun. Actually, vitamin D is synthesised by the body when the skin is exposed to sun light. Since the majority of human beings spends little time in the sun, many of us lack vitamin D. The intake of vitamin D through food is ridiculously low (compared to the amount produced by the exposition to sun light): fifteen minutes in the sun produce about 10,000 international units, against 100 units of a glass of milk. Fish is richer than milk and its by-products, above all anchovies, sardines and mackerel. However, it would be enough to lie in the sun for at least 15/20 minutes a day (with no sun cream) to meet the minimum requirements. Other food particularly rich in vitamin D is egg-yolk, liver and cod-liver oil. Generally, it becomes fundamental for the elderly to make use of an integrator of vitamin D, since they are hardly ever exposed