Diet Soda & Bone Strength

Experts aren't sure why drinking soda is linked to osteoporosis. It may be simply that the soda is displacing healthier drinks in your diet. If you're guzzling a Pepsi with dinner (or breakfast!) you're probably not drinking the glass of milk or fortified orange juice that nutritionists recommend.

"There is an association between people who have high soda intake and risk of fracture, but that's probably due to the fact that if they have a high soda intake, they have a low milk intake," agrees Robert Heaney, MD, FACP, a professor of medicine at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., and a nationally recognized expert on osteoporosis.

"Those things have been shown to be linked in various studies. But when you look at the ingredients of the soda and give those to healthy people and measure what it does to their calcium composition, nothing happens at all."

The leading cause of osteoporosis is a lack of certain hormones, particularly estrogen in women and androgen in men. Women, especially those older than 60 years, are frequently diagnosed with the disease. Menopause brings lower estrogen levels and increases a woman's risk for osteoporosis. Other factors that may contribute to bone loss in this age group include inadequate intake of calcium and vitamin D, lack of weight-bearing exercise, and other age-related changes in endocrine functions (in addition to lack of estrogen).

Other conditions that may lead to osteoporosis include overuse of corticosteroids (Cushing syndrome), thyroid problems, lack of muscle use, bone cancer, certain genetic disorders, use of certain medications, and problems such as low calcium in the diet.

Adequate calcium, vitamin D, appropriate exercise and, in some cases, medication are important for maintaining bone health. Currently, bisphosphonates (alendronate, ibandronate and risedronate), calcitonin, estrogens, parathyroid hormone and raloxifene are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the prevention and/or treatment of osteoporosis.

I thought they didn't include walking in the weight-bearing exercise category.

Believe it or not, gravity, or G for short, is very important to your bones. Your bones are made stronger by exercising against gravity because it puts resistance on your bones and muscles. For example, when you are walking, weight is placed on the bones of your feet, legs, and back. If you are riding a bike, resistance is placed on your legs. Exercises that involve walking, running, jumping, riding a bike, and lifting are weight-bearing exercises. This is only true because we have gravity on Earth.