Back in the previous millenium when I went to nursing school we learned that
the strength of one's bones was dependent on several factors. Nutrition
plays a role since without any calcium it is hard to replace what is lost
daily. In order to metabolize calcium, you need Vitamin D.  And to get your
bones to store calcium, you need to put muscle tension on them, through
weight-bearing exercise.  We also learned that the less calcium you get in
your diet, the better your body is at absorbing it.  Possibly something
similar is in operation in women who have lactated, since they have better
skeletal strength than women who have not done so, despite giving away
significant amounts of calcium during lactation.

Being immobilized in bed leads to a drastic loss of calcium from your
skeleton, so that after such a period, you need to actively work at getting
your bones to calcify again.  It was my understanding that dietary calcium
and Vitamin D would have little effect in the absence of weight-bearing
exercise.

Since I haven't updated my knowledge on this, I may be completely out on an
already sawed-off limb here, but I have always felt that I was doing my
skeleton a double favor by walking, cycling or swimming outdoors.  

Rachel Myr
Dutiful taker of cod liver oil, and active worshipper of Apollo, with no
idea of how my skeleton measures up, calcium-wise, nor of what my serum
Vitamin D level is

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