Exercise beats calcium as a bone booster

Both working out and eating calcium-rich dairy foods are good for your bones, but here's a suprise: A new study out of Finland suggests that exercise gives premenopausal women a bigger bone boost than calcium does. Pumping iron, doing Pilates, or getting in the gym to do your favorite activity can actually help increase bone mass and strength, the researchers say; calcium just helps slow the loss of bone mass as you age. The moral of the story: Loading up on calcium won't compensate for a weekend on the couch. You have to move those bones.

Health, September 2008, pg. 16