Your Hips Don’t Lie

The phrase “hips don’t lie” says it all. Hips not only provide shape and support but also enable movement, making them among the most important parts in the body.

PUT ON YOUR DANCING SHOES!

The American Heart Association recommends thirty minutes of physical activity each day. In addition to flexing your creative muscle, dancing is a form of exercise that helps maintain healthy bones by using different muscles throughout the body without impacting the joints. Cutting a rug—whether it’s zumba, salsa or ballroom dancing, even!—strengthens the bones and muscles in the legs and hips, lowers risk of heart disease and helps with weight loss.

Your Bones, Your Body

Maintaining strong, healthy bones is essential as we grow older. Specifically, the hip bone enables mobility for the pelvis area and lower extremity.

Daily doses of calcium and vitamin D, along with exercise, can help the body fight against bone loss. When the body lacks these vital nutrients or muscle-building activities, common bone problems often occur:

  • Osteoporosis affects approximately ten million Americans. This disease silently weakens the bones, which increases the chances of fractures, and is common in older women.
  • Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI) is a genetic disorder that causes the bones to break very easily. It can cause weak muscles, brittle teeth, a curved spine and hearing loss.
  • Paget’s Disease causes the bones in your body to grow larger and weaker than normal. Other symptoms include arthritis and hearing loss.
  • Osteoarthrosis (aka degenerative joint disorder) is the most common form of arthritis and occurs when cartilage in your joints is worn down over time.

DID YOU KNOW?

  • Hip-related pain is not confined to the hip area; you may also feel pain in your mid-thigh or groin area. Pain in your hips can even represent a back problem.
  • Hip pain can be caused by arthritis (inflammation on one or more joints), osteonecrosis (lack of blood flow to the bone, causing bone loss), tendonitis (inflammation, irritation and swelling of a tendon), lower back pain and infection.
  • Smoking accelerates bone loss by reducing the absorption of calcium in the body. Another culprit? Excessive consumption of alcohol, which slows bone formation and also reduces your body’s ability to absorb calcium.
  • A bone density test (aka densitometry or DXA scan) can determine whether you have or are at risk for osteoporosis.