fractures

You've heard the warnings time and again.

If you take a fall... and break a hip... your life could change forever.

As I've shared with you before, most patients with hip fractures find that even after surgery and rehab, they never really feel like themselves again.

A third of them don't ever return to living independently. And that's if they're lucky enough to go on living at all.

We've known for a while that breaking a hip can spike your risk of death in the year immediately following your fracture.

But according to a new study, that elevated death risk can linger for 10 YEARS -- and it’s not just a broken hip that can send you to an early grave.

In the study, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, researchers followed over 30,000 folks age 50 and up -- all of whom had taken a fall and broken a bone – over the course of a decade.

In the year after breaking a hip, men had a 33 percent higher chance of dying, and women had a 20 percent higher chance of dying compared to those in the general population who hadn't broken a hip.

And that makes sense -- because not only can hip surgery leave you a sitting duck for infections like sepsis and pneumonia, but being off your feet for weeks can worsen underlying conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and dementia.

But the study also found that even if you survive that first year after breaking your hip, your risk of death REMAINS higher than normal for up to a DECADE!

As I just mentioned, it's not just your hip bone that you have to worry about. Study participants who broke their femur or their pelvis had up to a 25 percent greater risk of dying in the year following the fracture.

Fractures of smaller bones -- like the clavicle or lower leg bones -- were less deadly, but they STILL raised the participants' risk of death up to 10 percent for a year.

And no matter which bone the participants broke (other than the hip), that elevated death risk persisted for up to five years!

After age 50, everyone’s bones lose some strength and density -- but if you've got osteoporosis, your skeleton can be as fragile as a china set.

To beef up your bones, load up on protein, calcium, magnesium, and vitamins D and K.

Regularly drinking black tea... getting plenty of sleep... and doing weight-bearing exercises like walking or jogging can also help fortify your bones.

And while you're at it, take some steps to stay steady on your feet and not make like Humpty Dumpty. As I always say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Activities like dance and tai chi can improve your balance, as can avoiding drugs that cause dizziness, like blood pressure meds and sleep aids.

The key ingredient in meat that will keep you strong

For millions of seniors, getting older means getting weaker -- and getting weaker means turning frail and setting yourself up for falls, crippling injuries, and even death.

And as I told you yesterday, it can all be traced back to shrinking muscle.

But you can take action now to avoid it -- SAVE your muscles, STOP the wasting, and even REVERSE the damage -- and all you have to do is ignore everything the mainstream tells you about muscle protection.

If you haven't asked your own doc about this yet, I'll save you the copay and tell you exactly what he'll say: Eat a low-fat diet and get regular exercise. Join a gym, sweat to the oldies, Zumba the night away -- torture yourself in the name of "fitness," and all your muscles will magically grow back.

What a load of bunk!

All that exercise will do is wreck your joints and strain your heart -- because the REAL key to keeping your muscles strong isn't living with blood, strain, or tears. It's with the healthy everyday movements I mentioned yesterday and a diet rich in meat.

Along with essential proteins and healthy fats, meats (especially beef) contain an amino acid that's critical to muscle health. It's called creatine -- and if you're getting up there in years, you'll likely want even more than what you can get from diet alone.

You'll need a supplement, and this is where you have to be careful.

A lot of what's out there is aimed at preening bodybuilders with huge muscles and tiny brains. This stuff can contain far too much creatine per serving for seniors -- and that's not all.

They can also contain sugars or dangerous sugar substitutes, artificial flavors, and a whole bunch of other stuff you don't need. And many of them also contain ingredients aimed at boosting testosterone production.

Now, you know me. I'm all for boosting T levels -- but you have to do it the right way, or you could face some unintended consequences. The neckless mutants who take this stuff may have huge muscles... but they're positively tiny somewhere else.

How do you think they fit into those itty-bitty man-bikinis?

And of course, women definitely need to be careful with testosterone -- unless they want a gig as a bearded lady in the local circus.

So make sure you get your creatine. But get it from healthy meats and a sensible supplement that contains nutrients aimed at seniors and normal folks -- not gym rats with shrunken junk.