Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Got Calcium?

I'm currently studying about calcium in my course now. Did you know that astronauts lose about 200mg of calcium a day in space?

The point, actually, is that without gravity our bones loses calcium, and when we don't walk or exercise, or even when we're lying down at night to sleep, our bones lose calcium.

Now this is interesting and scary to me at the same time.

Interesting because I wonder if we only have as much calcium as we have because of gravity. Our bones lose calcium in anti-gravity, which I said already, and rebuilds the bones with calcium again when the body is under the laws of gravity.

Does that mean that if we lived in space, we wouldn't need half the calcium we currently need now? Or does that mean that we need to supplement our diets with twice the calcium we need now to build up our bone mass?

98% of calcium is in our bones, and only 2% is needed for other important functions of the body, like muscle contractions. So 98% of the calcium in our bodies could be unnecessary if we were living in space...

Ok, maybe not the whole 98%, but still...a huge percentage wouldn't be needed. Maybe. Well, what do I know? They're still conducting experiments on it.

The scary part is that we lose calcium if we're inactive for long periods of time, and even while we're sleeping.

Hey, I like to sleep. And I tend to be inactive for long periods of time when I sit and read, or study, or when I'm at the computer...

How much calcium have I lost already? And am I taking enough calcium in my diet everyday to replace what I lose?

I don't want my bones to be weak or brittle and prone to fractures when I get older... =(

That does it! I going to drink goat's milk (cow's milk actually depletes more calcium from your body) everyday now, and exercise at least 15 minutes a day, everyday!

Sighz... I'm so glad I have a badminton game tonight...

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