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9.9 End-of-Chapter Exercises

It’s Your Turn

  1. Calculate your daily calcium intake by visiting the website of the International Osteoporosis Foundation, http://www.livestrong.com/article/258803-how-to-calculate-calcium-intake/. Compare it to the RDA and UL for your age and sex.
  2. Determine your risk factors for osteoporosis and plug them in the interactive tool at http://www.webmd.com/hw-popup/risk-of-osteoporosis to estimate your risk for osteoporosis.
  3. Plan a dinner meal that contains at least one-third of the RDAs of calcium and vitamin D. To help you determine the calcium and vitamin D contents in foods, visit the USDA National Nutrient Database at http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/.

Apply It

  1. Make a list of foods that increase calcium absorption and a list of foods that decrease calcium absorption. Based on your calculated calcium intake levels, determine which foods you should add or subtract from your diet. Now design a daily menu plan that incorporates the changes.
  2. Go to the store and look at three calcium supplements. Record the brand names, type of calcium used in each brand, and amounts. Based on your daily calcium intake defend whether or not you need a calcium supplement. If you do decide you need a supplement, which brand would be your best choice?

Expand Your Knowledge

  1. Draw a cartoon that contains the cells and the four steps involved in the bone remodeling process. Make a timeline on your cartoon that links the processes of bone remodeling with the length of time it takes a broken bone to heal.

  2. Watch the following video on the DEXA technology. Then compose a hypothetical list of osteoporosis risk factors for a woman over the age of fifty and provide a recommendation on when she should start having her BMD monitored.

    DEXA—Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry

    (click to see video)
  3. Summarize in a written discussion why it is critical to achieve a high peak bone mass early in young adulthood to reduce the risk of developing osteoporosis later in life. Provide a graph of the bone-life cycle in men and women.