Super Bowl Sunday!

Watching the Super Bowl this past Sunday was so fun!  Obviously I wish that the 49er’s won being from the Bay Area and all, but it was still an exciting game to watch nonetheless.  Football players are so strong and so intense!  They must have stronger bones than any other human on earth!  The way they take and make tackles without getting more hurt blows my mind.  I am an elite runner, which is basically the opposite of a football player, but it is interesting to investigate any similarities that I might share with some of these incredible athletes.

For anyone that watched the super bowl yesterday, you know that there was a power outage that led to a 30-minute delay during the game.  It was so cool to watch the football players during this time.  Instead of whining on the sidelines about something that was completely out of their control, they were all out on the field doing exercises and drills to stay warm and ready to go back to battle.  This was the first time that I realized that I do some of the same stuff that football players do! Read More…

And the Race Goes On!

I ran in the California International Marathon this past Sunday. It was an AMAZING event that took place in Sacramento. The race started 26 miles away from the finish and the runners crossed the line in front of the capital building. The weather was terrible! There were 38 mph winds and pouring rain the entire race! Leading up to the race there were flood warnings all over the news and talk about a terrible storm scheduled to hit during the hours of the race. After months of training, I could have taken this as very disappointing news because my goal of breaking 2:30 was out the window due to the high head winds expected, but instead I put my battle face on.  Read More…

Volunteer experience!

I had the amazing opportunity this past weekend to be part of American Bone Health’s information table at a Science Fair held at NASA Ames Space Center in Mountain View, California.  Along with other senior service agencies, we shared our knowledge about how to improve the lives of seniors with over 300 fourth through eighth grade students and their adult mentors or parents. They were getting ideas about a special science project called “Senior Solutions.” What was so important, was that we were able to spread our message about bone health to them as well, because we know that everyone, no matter your age, needs to learn how to take care of their bones!  So, through the interactive materials we brought with us, they were able to see how much they knew about bone health and what information they were missing.  We had them take a quiz and answer some simple questions about what foods provide calcium, how much calcium they need for their age, how important Vitamin D is, and some about exercise.  They were very bright and asked some interesting questions.

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Road Racing

This summer I have been road racing a lot.  Road races are such a blast.  There are usually thousands of people all out to run the streets of wherever the race is while hundreds of more people come out to cheer.  One of the most fun ones that I did was the wharf-to-wharf race in Santa Cruz.  It was such a party!  There were over 15 bands on the 6 mile course blasting music while other spectators were screaming encouraging cheers at all of the runners.

My goal was to be one of the top four runners Read More…

Alcohol and bone health

Bright and early yesterday I heard NPR report the results of study of women who stopped drinking alcohol for 2 weeks. The researcher measured the bone turnover markers and concluded that the alcohol had the effect of slowing the bone remodeling process.

Red flags went off for me – but I listened to the end of the report and thankfully the author included a quote from a scientist who admits that studies can be misinterpreted and we must be careful about the impact of their conclusions and the messages we might send.

OK – excellent. Crisis averted.

Then, later that day, the alerts about news coverage exploded!

“Study Finds Wine Boosts Bone Health” Examiner.com

“Ladies, Drink to Your (Bone) Health” – Newsday

“Say Cheers to Bone Health” allvoices.com

“Alcohol Good for Bone Health in Women” ABC7 – Chicago

“Alcohol Does a Body Good? Study Finds It Boosts Bone Health” TIME

The worst I read included was from my hometown news WRAL whose lead was “There may be new medicine to help prevent bone loss, but it’s not found in pharmacies. Restaurants, bars and ABC liquor stores could hold the key. Women who want to prevent osteoporosis may want to raise their glass.”

I am not a humorless person and I do enjoy wine, but I was shocked with the implications of so many responsible news outlets.

Let’s not kid ourselves – a serving of wine is 5 ounces – a tad over ½ cup. That’s not much. Epidemiological studies have shown that chronic consumption of more than 3 serving a day (15 ounces or 1½ cups) increases risk of fracture.

Moderation = good. Sensational headlines = bad.

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