Brisk walking is one of the easiest weight-bearing exercises, and helps increase bone mineral density, which often decreases with age, but nearly 80 percent of walkers fail to walk at a pace vigorous enough to benefit bone density, the Taiwanese Osteoporosis Association said.
Association director-general Chen Fang-ping (陳芳萍) said that a woman’s bone mineral density usually peaks between the age of 30 and 35, but it starts decreasing by an average of 1 to 2 percent after she reaches 40.
“The rate of decrease further accelerates after menopause, by 3 to 5 percent annually,” Chen said.
Photo: Chang Tsun-wei, Taipei Times
Chen added that men aged from 61 to 70 have a fatality rate of 22 percent one year after suffering a hip fracture, compared with just 15 percent among women in the same age group.
Citing research published in 2007 by the English-language journal Bone, Chen said research showed a 0.4 percent increase in the bone mineral density of post-menstrual women after they completed a 15-week program of brisk walking, which required them to walk 4.8km at a pace of 6.3kph to 6.4kph five times a week.
“The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Journal of the American Medical Association define brisk walking as a pace of from 4.8kph to 6.3kph, but nearly 80 percent of 500 respondents to a recent online poll conducted by Pollster Technology Marketing at the association’s request said they walked at less than 3kph,” Chen said.
Chen said in addition to doing weight-bearing exercise regularly, other effective ways to prevent osteoporosis — a disease in which the density and quality of bones is reduced — include increasing exposure to sunlight and boosting calcium intake.
Health and Exercise Association speed-walking instructor Tu Hsin-yu (涂馨友) said people should speed-walk to pop music of 90 to 120 beats per minute, such as Taiwanese diva A-mei’s (阿妹) Bad Boy, to lift their mood and help them work out longer.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
NEW DESTINATIONS: Marketing campaigns to attract foreign travelers have to change from the usual promotions about Alishan and Taroko Gorge, the transport minister said The number of international tourists visiting Taiwan is estimated to top 8 million by the end of this year, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) said yesterday, adding that the ministry has not changed its goal of attracting 10 million foreign travelers this year. Chen made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee to brief lawmakers about the ministry’s plan to boost foreign visitor arrivals. Last month, Chen told the committee that the nation might attract only 7.5 million tourists from overseas this year and that when the ministry sets next year’s goal, it would not include