Calcium and Bone Health/Role of Calcium in Height of a Person

What is the relationship between calcium and bones?
  What should I do if I want to grow taller? 

  The expert: Professor Zhu Shunye, Department of Pediatric Endocrinology, The Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University

Milk contains approximately 110mg of calcium per 100mL of milk, a good source of dietary calcium. Your body needs calcium to keep your bones dense and strong.

Everything grows in spring, and it is also considered the golden season for children to grow taller. However, many parents are wondering how to promote their children's growth. In the minds of many parents, there is only one way to deal with "children not growing tall", that is, "drink milk and supplement calcium". However, child growth and development experts disagree with this approach. 

Professor Zhu Shunye, emphasized that in addition to eliminating disease factors such as dwarfism, children must eat well, sleep well, and exercise well if they want to grow taller. Specifically, seize the two golden hours of growth hormone secretion. When children have a lot of homework, reasonable choice of exercise methods and scientific arrangements can get twice the result with half the effort.

Clarification: 

1.Drinking milk is not just for calcium supplementation! 

"Some parents often mistakenly think that 'drinking milk = calcium supplementation = promoting height', but this is not the case."

Zhu Shunye pointed out that besides calcium, milk is also rich in amino acids and other nutrients, which are easily absorbed by the body. Taking pure milk as an example, eighty to ninety percent of it is water, protein accounts for about 3% to 4%, lactose accounts for about 4% to 5%, and fat accounts for about 3% to 5%. Drinking milk is not only for calcium supplementation, calcium and "growing taller" are not the only corresponding relationship.

Some children are lactose intolerant. Parents use calcium tablets instead of milk in order to make their children grow taller. "Actually, calcium tablets are difficult to replace the nutritional value of milk. Blindly supplementing calcium may not be able to promote rapid growth." Zhu Shunye pointed out that normal intake of calcium can strengthen bones. Some children who are deficient in calcium are not short in height, but their bones are developed. There are deformities. 

Nutrition experts recommend drinking a glass of milk every day. What needs to be reminded is that although milk is good, it cannot be "drinked as water". If you drink more than 500ml of milk a day, you may have excess calories, causing obesity and other problems, and also affecting the balanced intake of nutrition. In addition, whether it is "Morning Milk" or "Night Milk", it is recommended not to let the child drink the fresh milk that has just been taken out of the refrigerator, because the temperature is relatively low, which may irritate the stomach. It is recommended to add warm water to the bottle. Warm, but be careful not to boil the milk to avoid loss of nutrients.

2.To grow taller, sleep well 

 Zhu Shunye pointed out that the reasons for the slow growth are quite complicated. The growth of the human body is closely related to nutrition, growth hormone and thyroxine in infancy, and mainly related to growth hormone and thyroxine in childhood after the age of 3, and growth hormone and sex hormones directly lead to the growth of height in adolescence.

During the infant period, the child's nutrition should be sufficient and balanced, and attention should be paid to avoid partial eclipse.

After school age, on the premise of paying attention to a balanced diet and excluding the effects of endocrine diseases such as growth hormone, one must ensure adequate sleep and moderate exercise.

"Parents, please pay attention, make sure that school-age children fall asleep before ten o'clock in the evening." Zhu Shunye said that there are two periods of peak secretion of growth hormone, one is from twelve o'clock to one o'clock in the middle of the night, and the other is from five o'clock to six o'clock in the morning. These two stages should keep the child in the deep sleep stage, and from this, if you fall asleep at ten o'clock, you can enter the deep sleep stage just around twelve o'clock.

Zhu Shunye suggested that parents who are used to staying up late to work can put their children to bed first, and then get up to work. To create a quiet and comfortable sleeping environment for children, try not to install night lights, and it is not recommended to use brighter desk lamps to "embolden" children. Some children are more sensitive to light and shade, and night lights are not conducive to children's sleep. If the child is particularly afraid of the dark and cannot do without the night light, the light should be dimmed as much as possible, or the night light should be changed to a floor lamp with a less light perception. After the child is fully asleep, the bedroom lights should be turned off.

3.To grow taller, exercise intensity must meet the standard 

Exercise increases muscle strength and allows bones to grow normally. Clinical monitoring shows that after a certain intensity of longitudinal bounce exercise is completed, it can increase the secretion of growth hormone and help grow taller. "Swimming and playing basketball are good for growing taller, but judging from the learning reality of Chinese children, it is not realistic to play basketball for an hour a day." Zhu Shunye pointed out that the "classic boosting exercise" in the minds of many parents is pulling the horizontal bar. Not suitable for elementary school students, but more suitable for college and middle school students to practice. Because children's ligaments are not well developed, they are prone to sports injuries. Therefore, doctors do not advocate pulling the horizontal bar too early.

Preschool children can practice trampoline under the supervision of their parents, or touch heights with bare hands. It is recommended to choose a small household trampoline with a fence to prevent children from being accidentally injured by falling out of the trampoline.

Zhu Shunye pointed out that rope skipping is the first choice for longitudinal bouncing sports that are more friendly to children of all ages. It does not have high requirements on the venue, it can be practiced both indoors and outdoors, and the equipment cost is relatively low. It is recommended to choose a light skipping rope with a counter.

To grow taller, exercise intensity must meet the standard. Studies have shown that when you exercise for 10 minutes a day and your heart rate reaches 140 beats per minute, this intensity can promote the secretion of growth hormone. If it is converted into skipping rope, it is advisable to jump 1000~1500 times.

4.The timing of exercise is also important.

Don't let children "exercise after finishing their homework". Especially the children in the lower grades procrastinate in doing their homework. By the time they finish their homework, it is already late at night, and the children are relatively tired and not suitable for exercise. Zhu Shunye suggested that the first thing to do when you get home from school is to exercise for 20 minutes, and then have dinner after the exercise.

Specifically, skip rope for 20 minutes each time, of which the first 5 minutes is a warm-up exercise, and then skip rope 1000-1500 times within 10 minutes, try not to interrupt it many times. The last 5 minutes are finishing exercises. "After rope skipping, I recommend doing 'traction exercises' to fully stretch the body, split legs, and moderately hang the horizontal bar." Zhu Shunye said

What needs to be reminded is that when "switching" from bloated winter clothes to light spring clothes, you need to pay attention to the child's posture, especially whether there are scoliosis problems such as high and low shoulders, long and short feet, etc. Nowadays, some children like to lie on their sides on the sofa and brush their mobile phones, or nest in the "lazy sofa". I hope that children can pay attention to reading postures and leisure postures. Zhu Shunye suggested that when reading in your spare time, you can adopt a "ballroom dance" preparation posture, stand against the wall, hold the book straight with your hands, and make it at eye level to create a tall and straight figure.

       By Dr Sher jahan
       General Physician at
       Government Hospital Chilas
         Northern Areas Pakistan

(Knowledge from Chinese News Agency)