Supplements

If you are a young woman and take birth control, you better continue reading. Studies have shown that birth control effects bone mass. This needs to be fought or counteracted by increasing calcium consumption during a woman’s younger years. If this doesn’t happen there may be more women experiencing osteoporosis once they reach menopause.

The National Osteoporosis Foundation reports that 10 million Americans suffer from the disease, which causes bones to become fragile and increases bone fracture risk. They also report that 34 million more have low bone mass, and this will also increase the chance of getting osteoporosis.

Contraceptive pills were introduced in 1960, but they keep changing and there are now over 40 different kinds. A study took 135 younger women from age 18-30; they all consumed less than 800mg of calcium per day and 57 of used oral contraceptives. Each woman was assigned a a different diet. One was a moderate dairy diet, where calcium consumed was from 1000-1100 mg per day; a high dairy diet, where 1200-1300 mg of calcium per day was consumed; and a control diet, where calcium consumed stayed below 800mg per day.

To give you some sort of scale for calcium amounts; a 200ml glass of whole milk has 243mg of calcium, and the same amount of semi-skimmed milk has 247mg.

Research showed that in one year, the increase of calcium to women heightened their body mass density, body mass content, and bone area. When dairy product consumption increased, it helped prevent a negative change in spine and hip body mass density for the women who took contraceptives.

The differences in bone mass with increased calcium from this study was between 1 and 2 percent. This means the risk of osteoporosis will decrease between 3-10 percent over one year. If bone mass is increased anywhere from 5-10% than it can reduce the risk of fracture up to 50%.

This alone shows how important it is to receive more calcium in our diets. Women who use contraceptives should be getting at least 1000mg per day to prevent bone mass loss. If you are someone who is lactose intolerant or just don’t like dairy very much you can get calcium from: broccoli, kale, turnip greens, bok choy, soft-boned fish, dried beans and almonds. There is also the alternative of adding a supplement to your diet.