In my most recent article about Osteoporosis I discussed the importance of using strength training for building muscle and strengthening bones to prevent the onset of this disease. While this is an absolute must it is never going to work well if you do not eat a balanced diet that has optimal levels of protein to ensure the muscles can repair and grow. I think most people are aware of the need to eat quality protein to build muscle however, like most things you can have too much of a good thing and over-eat it causing other serious health problems. You must eat the right balance of protein, carbs, and fats to maintain a healthy body but the big question remains, how much protein is enough? There is no definitive answer to this as it all depends on the needs of each person. The more active you are, the more you weigh, the more you are going to need. When you factor in age, sex, and other various health conditions that may affect nutrient absorption you will find that the amount you need may be much more than you think. Also not all protein is equal as some foods have a higher protein quality than others so this is another thing you have to keep this in mind when trying to work out how much you need. In today's article we will take a close look at all of the various factors you need to consider giving you a better understanding of how much protein to eat in your diet.

In recent weeks I have had several discussions with people regarding the things they should do to prevent Osteoporosis. Some of these people had witnessed their parents succumb to this and were concerned that it would happen to them so they wanted to ensure they did everything they could to prevent it. Osteoporosis is a disease of the bone that makes a person’s bones weak and more likely to break and is often called a “silent disease” because you cannot feel your bones getting weaker.  Many people do not even know they have osteoporosis until after they break a bone. Once you have Osteoporosis you cannot reverse it so it is vital you do everything you can to prevent it from happening by making important lifestyle choices. If you do already have it you can still do things to prevent any further bone loss and also drastically reduce the likelihood of any future bone fractures. The sooner you start the better, for research shows that how likely you are to develop osteoporosis depends partly on how much bone mass you attained in your youth. The higher your peak bone mass, the more bone you have "in the bank" and the less likely you are to develop osteoporosis as you age. In this article, I will discuss what they key factors you need to start doing now to avoid this becoming a problem later in life.

In my recent article about how manual handling instructions in the workplace may be contributing to back problems instead of correcting them I made a reference to an interesting book by Esther Gokhale called 8 steps to pain free back. In this book she provides some fascinating insights into how people in Africa and India move in daily life with much different posture in comparison to people in the Western world. She notes how these people are almost completely free of back pain and musculoskeletal problems that are rampant in modern industrialized society. These observations are the basis for her 8 steps in the book and provide some great ideas to treating back problems at the source. As opposed to most injury rehabilitation methods that focus mostly on the exercise corrections this method concentrates on adjusting the way we move with sitting, lying, walking, and bending. In this article, I discuss how this book helped me personally with a hip and back problem and the key parts that relate to all of us.