Here’s a scary fact: According to a report from the International Osteoporosis Foundation, women who sit for more than nine hours a day are fifty percent more likely to break a hip than women who sit less than six hours a day. I don’t know about you, but I spend a LOT of time sitting in front of the computer; it’s one of the negatives about doing a lot of writing and research.
Here’s how your hips work: the thighbone (AKA the femur) fits into a socket in your pelvis. It is the largest ball-and-socket joint in your body! Muscles in your butt, groin, and spine help hold your hip joint together. Oh, and by the way, the largest nerve in your body — the sciatic nerve — passes behind your hip joint as it heads down your leg.
The femur is one of the strongest bones in your body, but it can weaken as you age — or if you don’t take care of yourself! Bone is a living tissue — it is constantly gaining and losing calcium. If more calcium is lost than replaced (through diet), your bone density will be reduced, putting you at risk for a fracture. Around the age of thirty-five, you will start to lose bone mass. The loss gets faster after a woman goes through menopause.
Adding a calcium supplement to your diet — if you don’t eat calcium-rich foods — is a good way to help cut down your bone loss. Vitamin D can also help your body absorb and use calcium. And weight-bearing exercise will help you maintain bone strength. Check out the Fitness Blog for ideas on exercise and getting started! Walking is a great exercise for bone strength.
If you have hip problems, you may be experiencing pain in more than just your hips. Research done at the University of Washington found that people with hip problems experienced pain in the thigh, groin, lower leg, foot, knee, and most often, the butt. If you are experiencing pain in any of those areas, you may want to ask your doctor to check your hips!