Family and Home Security Information

Critical Minerals

Exercise alone cannot maintain bone health. Nor will calcium alone. We all know calcium is extremely important for healthy bones—but it can be hard for your body to absorb. It needs to be combined with certain other nutrients to be effective.

Plus, calcium is just one of more than a dozen nutrients your bones need to stay flexible and strong. And it doesn’t address other key bone health factors—building collagen and the need to reduce bone breakdown.

Scientists have identified vitamins D and K and many essential minerals besides calcium that synergistically help maintain strong bones. Minerals support processes involved in building strong bone, including collagen synthesis, mineralization, and proper absorption of calcium and other minerals.

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“Bone health isn’t just for seniors, it’s for everyone,” US Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona said. “Everyone has to be aware of their bone health. Bones are similar to the frame of your house. With a strong and healthy frame, you’ll have a strong and healthy body. We encourage doctors and nurses, patients, and community leaders to help educate the public on ways to be bone healthy.” 

The Bare-Bones Facts

By Susan Lark, MD

We all know the importance of maintaining healthy bones throughout life. Fortunately, there are safe, effective, ways to support strong, dense bones, regardless of your age.

Bones aren’t static. They’re living, changing tissues that are constantly breaking down and rebuilding themselves. When you were younger, your body did this very efficiently. In fact, most women achieve peak bone density in their early 30s. But as you get older, especially after menopause, your body breaks down more bone than it rebuilds. That’s why it’s so important to take steps now to maintain strong, resilient bones throughout your life.

It’s never too late to start thinking about bone health. I have seen patients in their 70s and 80s strengthen their bones and build new bone with a good bone maintenance program.

Building Bones through Exercise

Bones change constantly in response to different forces. Stress or strain on bones stimulates osteoblasts (cells that build bone). The more your bones resist gravity, the stronger they become. Conversely, inactivity takes its toll.

Exercise can increase bone mass, regardless of age. Researcher Miriam Nelson, Ph.D., author of the book Strong Women Stay Young, found that women who lifted weights 40 minutes twice a week for one year felt 15 to 20 years younger. Instead of losing bone, they showed small but significant gains, and felt happier, more energetic, and more self-confident—and the weight training led to significant weight loss.

Put stress on your bones regularly. If you’ve been sedentary, start with ten minutes a day and work up to 30–45 minutes three to five times a week. Do weight-bearing aerobic exercise such as walking, cycling, tennis, skiing—anything that gets you moving. Making room in your life for exercise will benefit not just your bones, but also your body and outlook.

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The Virginia Tech campus shooting further emphasized the need for colleges, universities and schools to implement emergency procedures to ensure effective and quick communication with students, parents, teachers and staff during an emergency. Emergency mass notification systems offer this ability using features that enable mass text, e-mail and voice message delivery to hundreds of contacts within seconds. Now, many schools — and companies — are adopting these systems in order to keep their students and employees safe.

Selective Mass Notification System

COMMUNICATES THROUGH TEXT MESSAGING;

The Web-based campus communication system features a central interface that allows users to self-administer and manage time-sensitive information in minutes to students, faculty, staff, campus security and first responders. The system uses the supplier’s network to send SMS text message alerts to subscribed cell phones, wireless PDAs, pagers, school and personal e-mail accounts, personal Web browser portals and RSS readers. The system also includes a bulletin board feature that allows school officials to post an emergency message on the school’s Web site without having to contact the school’s Webmaster. The central interface allows administrators to set up accounts and groups, create registration forms and bulletin boards, send advisories, manage subscribers and view reports.

Web-Based School Emergency Notification System

DELIVERS MESSAGES SIMULTANEOUSLY TO MOBILE DEVICES

Within minutes of an emergency, school officials can use the system to deliver a single, clear message to students, parents and guardians by phone, cell phone, e-mail, pager or PDA. Customized messages can be created and updated in real-time for a number of situations, students or groups. Schools can also increase preparedness by preparing messages beforehand to handle emergency or routine situations. The system eliminates paper and phone-tree communications as well as the costs required to maintain auto-dial or broadcast e-mail systems. Students, parents and guardians enter their contact information on a secure Web site and can then define how they wish to receive messages. Honeywell Security System Alert for Schools and Business, Honeywell.

School Mass Notification System

OFFERS THREE SERVICE LEVELS TO FIT VARYING NEEDS

The system streamlines voice and text emergency communications to thousands of parents, students, faculty and staff members using a variety of communication devices. Users may choose from three service levels. The standard edition enables users to access the system online or by phone; to designate student, parent and guardian relationships for future communication; and to send absentee, informative and emergency voice and text notifications. The premium edition adds polling, ad-hoc reporting and conference call capabilities. The ultra edition further allows users to build pre-set scenarios; implement a customized caller ID function; create fields that collect, filter and report meaningful information; and send quota-based notifications.

Outdoor Mobile Public Alerting System

DELIVERS EMERGENCY MESSAGES IN HIGH-VOLUME AREAS

The mobile, self-contained system issues audio messages via live voice, recorded and/or siren tones throughout high-population and wide geographic areas. The communication can be used in situations that call for emergency evacuation, crowd control, voice deterrents and critical area warnings. The central command platform can function via wireless, fiber optic or broadband communications, and interoperability is supported by UHF/wide-band and VHF/narrow-band radio frequency capabilities. The system also conducts surveillance and relays visual information from an emergency scene.

VoIP Emergency Notification System

DELIVERS PRE-RECORDED MESSAGES TO DESIGNATED PHONE NUMBERS

The emergency communication system uses Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to send a message to a database of telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and fax numbers. The system includes an instant callback feature, which gives parents and students the option to make a return call to a designated phone number by pressing a single key. A real-time reporting feature allows school personnel to immediately determine which students have been reached by telephone and which have received e-mail messages. The system will then continue to call those students who have not been reached. Users may also create custom call groups — for example, groups of students who live in a particular dormitory or in an off-campus residence — and specify which groups will receive messages first. Emergency Notification System, Global Connect .

Conference-Enabled Emergency Notification System

NOTIFIES AND BRIDGES RECIPIENTS INTO IMMEDIATE CONFERENCE

The system’s quick-join conferencing feature can bridge contacts into a telephone conference call within seconds after notifying them of an emergency, which expedites handling of a crisis for better outcomes of events. When notifying, the system “looks” for individuals at work, at home or on cell phones and can leave alternative messages when it has not reached a person. The system sends voice and text emergency messages to e-mail, fax, digital and alpha pagers, PDAs and cell phones using group lists created from a master database. It also includes Command Mapper, which enables users to identify geographic areas on a map and notify recipients in those areas. The system can be used as a stand-alone system or hosted at the supplier’s secure data center site.

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