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Certain lifestyle choices can create negative health outcomes

Category: General Health

Convenience can be a good thing depending on the situation, but in some circumstances, the easy way out is not necessarily the best. The increased availability of fast food and high-sugar snacks has made grabbing a candy bar or soda more convenient than making a sandwich, but the negative effects of these choices can add up over time. For example, cholesterol testing is becoming more common for baby boomers, but other blood tests may be useful in detecting problems that researchers are only now identifying.

According to research from the University of Michigan (UM), lifelong habits of eating high-fat, sugary foods may lead to an increased risk of developing osteoporosis. United Press International (UPI) noted that, apart from triggering obesity, heart disease and other issues that a cholesterol test can pick up, joint and bone problems can also be linked to these kinds of lifestyle choices. The School of Kinesiology at UM partnered with the Alberta Bone and Joint Health Institute in order to uncover these results, looking at the dietary and lifestyle choices of a large number of osteoporosis sufferers.

UPI reported that the study found that fat and sugar can make calcium absorption harder for the body to carry out. On the one hand, these kinds of foods cause calcium to pass through someone's system and leave the body without ever making it to the bones. In other cases, fats and sugars line the intestinal tract with a viscous patina that blocks calcium from moving through the organ walls, a key site of nutrient transfer.

Isolating risk factors
Considering that many women will suffer a hip fracture before they hit 85 due to osteoporosis, one-fifth of whom will die due to the side effects of this kind of injury, a lab test can pick up on how much calcium is moving through the body without being absorbed. These results can indicate to younger patients that they need to change their eating habits in order to avoid developing osteoporosis later in life.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) found similar results in its research of osteoporosis. RPI, in collaboration with Yale and other major institutions, found that high-fat and sugary diet choices led to led to less osteocalcin and osteopontin in bones. These proteins are essential for absorbing calcium, and researchers found that brittle fractures and breaks were associated with places in the bone where these values were lowest.