Those of us a bit further along the winding and oh-so-interesting path of life than we used to be ... yes, I'm talking older, but euphemisms go a long way toward taking the sting out of the reality ... can find that the part of the trail that wanders on past the middle offers some bumps, health-wise, we need to be aware of if we're to negotiate them well enough to raise kids as we move along.

There are not only bumps of the painful shingles variety, but also the kind that can eventually appear on our backs, resulting in us looking like some quasi-Quasimodo.

Estimates have it that one in three women and one in twelve men over fifty have osteoporosis, and that a fifty-year-old caucasian woman has a 17.5% lifetime risk of breaking a hip.

Don't know about you, but there's no way I could do all I need to do in a day with a fractured proximal femur. Any wishing that Sam and Cj would be for slowing down to accommodate a gimpy me any time over the next fifteen years, at the very least, would be futile, and unfair, so I need to do everything I can to make sure I can outrun them for as long as possible.

Interestingly, the fact that I breastfed my biological children may offer me a bit of protection. According to the La Leche League, there are studies that suggest women who never breastfeed may have a higher risk of osteoporosis, news that is completely contrary to previous thinking. (Our Hoping to Adopt Blogger did a series on adoptive mother breastfeeding, and there have been documented cases of post-menopausal women being able to do this, too.)

Another bit of protection is the exercise I get ... and that tai chi I talked about yesterday would be healthy addition to my routine.

Unfortunately, all that protects our bones naturally starts to desert us the same time our body decides to stop our monthly cycles. Menopause really takes it out of us. Women can lose up to one-third of their spinal bone mass within the first six years after menopause. One third! And with many of us older adoptive moms, those six years might be so darned busy raising little kids that we forget to focus on what's going on in our own bodies.

Like much the phrase "use it or lose it" applies to, bones get stronger when you make them work. Strength training and weight-bearing exercise can actually increase the density of even old bones.

A healthy diet, of course, also can help, and the usual culprits -- cigarettes and alcohol -- don't do your bones any favors while they're busy gunking up your heart and lungs. Caffeine is another problem, as an excess contributes to bone breakdown.

As a start to thinking about protecting your bones now to keep them strong, take this risk assessment questionnaire from Better Bones.

I wrote last year on bone density tests and how adopting as an older parent might help keep your bones in shape, so you might want to take a look at that post.