How Strong Bones Rejuvenate the Mind and Body!

 

Scientists have discovered a hormone that helps your muscles stay stronger, your brain more alert and nimble, keeps your blood sugar under control, and makes your bones stronger.      

This hormone is called osteocalcin, and it is somewhat of a fountain of youth for your mind and body.  Bones create osteocalcin, and you can take steps to secrete more of it!

Osteocalcin tends to decrease as we age with the decline beginning in the thirties for woman and in the fifties for mean.   Scientists believe this decline is one of the main reasons older people lose mental and physical function.

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center did animal tests and showed that injections of osteocalcin into older animals and showed that it resulted in dramatic improvements in muscle function to the level of younger animals.   The injections also improved animal brain functions like recall and learning to levels that rivaled younger animals.

Research from Europe and Australia showed that woman in their 70’s with the highest levels of osteocalcin had better mental skills that allow processing of information and decision making.

How to Increase Osteocalcin

The most important step to increasing osteocalcin in exercise!  Research from the Medical College of Georgia showed that running or walking twenty minutes per day increase osteocalcin.

But aerobic exercise is not the only way to increase osteocalcin levels – resistance training can also increase osteocalcin particularly if it is coupled with adequate intake of key minerals such as calcium.