The new results are seen as hope for the female athletes as well as women in the military, who suffer more frequently from stress fracture. A stress fracture is one type of incomplete fractures in bones. It could be described as a very small sliver or crack in the bone; this is why it is sometimes dubbed "hairline fracture". It typically occurs in weight-bearing bones, such as the bones of the lower leg and bones of the foot.
Usually when running, a stress fracture has severe pain in the beginning of the run, moderate pain in the middle of the run, and severe pain at the end and after the run. It typically occurs in weight-bearing bones, such as the bones of the lower leg and bones of the foot.
Funded by the Department of Defense, the study was conducted on nearly 3,700 women, ages 17 to 35, who were under training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Great Lakes, Illinois. Nearly 50 percent of them were given supplements with the higher amounts of calcium and vitamin D over their eight-week training periods. The other half were not given any. The study found that fewer fractures were reported among the women who took the supplements.
Conducted by Creighton University, the survey found that women who took 2,000 milligrams of calcium and 800 international units (IUs) of vitamin D daily had 27 percent fewer stress fractures than those who didn't.
However, the recommended daily dose of calcium for women ages 19 to 50 comes to 1,000 milligrams and 200 IUs of vitamin D each day. Calcium is used by body to build and repair bones; vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium. However, it was found that young women are not getting enough of these daily doses of Calcium and Vitamin D.
The findings reveal that stress fractures among young, active women can be reduced to quite an extent is they were given higher doses of calcium and vitamin D. The risk group also includes high school athletes, particularly those who participate in track and field.
