Everything you need to know about bone health

Teens
Calcium – Ages 14 to 18: 1,300 mg per day
If your teen eschews dairy, she can still get enough calcium from other sources. Encourage her to eat four daily servings of foods such as tofu, fortified soy milk and beans. Soybeans have an added benefit: they contain naturally occurring bone-preserving compounds called isoflavones, which can bind to estrogen receptors in the body. The female hormone estrogen is believed to protect bones.

Vitamin D – 200 IUs per day
Much like younger children, teens who are at increased risk of vitamin D deficiency – for example, those with darker skin or who live in such northern climates as Canada's – might need supplements.

Exercise
There's still time at this age to accumulate enough bone mass to carry teens through to old age. But unfortunately, this is the age when sports teams seem to play second fiddle to socializing and dating. In one study, the proportion of Scottish girls who exercised fell from 60 per cent at age 11 to only 16 per cent at age 16.

Canadian teens seem to be even less active: according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, only 18 per cent of teenagers are active enough to meet international guidelines for optimal growth and development. To encourage teens to stay involved, the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women and Sport and Physical Activity has these tips:

• Look for a female-only team; girls are more likely to participate when boys aren’t around
• Find a team that appears to be as interested in the enjoyment of the game as in winning it
• Be sure that the league your teen is involved with offers a supportive environment.
• Help your teen to find a sport or activity that she enjoys

Prevention
To prevent bone problems down the road, you might want to put a cap on the amount of pop your teen consumes. The caffeine and phosphorous found in many of these carbonated soft drinks increases the amount of calcium excreted by the kidneys. A 2000 study by the Harvard School of Public Health, published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, found that active girls who drank cola were five times more likely to suffer bone fractures.

It's also important to nip an eating disorder in the bud to prevent bone injury. Such disorders have reached astounding levels among teens; a study published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine last year estimates that 10 per cent of teen girls regularly engage in bulimic behaviours. Among other severe consequences, eating disorders can cause irregular periods or even amenorrhea, the cessation of periods altogether. When girls cease getting their periods, they don't get the exposure to estrogen that is so important during these crucial bone-forming years.

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