Mary,

If you are talking about your daughter twisting (or having "weak"
ankles),
I can think of two things that will help.

First, she can do simple strengthening exercises as follows: 1) make
circles with her toes in clockwise and counterclockwise directions
(20-50
reps); 2) spell the alphabet with her big toe (each foot); 2) stand on
one
leg and balance with eyes closed.  She could do these exercises once
each
night.  Once she has mastered these exercises and feels that her
ankles are
stronger, then she could progress to light lunges and/or squats.

Second, if the problem is with the bones in the foot, then she may
consider
altering her diet to improve the bone-building process.  Eliminating
dairy
and eating more meat and leafy green vegetables would help.  I am sure
others on the list can provide more details related to diet and bone
strength.

I broke (hairline fractures) both my ankles playing high school
football
and twisted them repeatedly playing pick-up basketball until I was 27,
at
which point a doctor prescribed the exercises above.  I have not had a
problem since.  My ankles (and body) are much stronger since I began
doing
squats and deadlifts regularly, and adopted a paleodiet at 28 (I am
now
30).  I ate a  lot of sugar and dairy before paleo.

Hope that helps,

Brad

On Sat, 2 Sep 2000 17:05:11 -0700, Mary <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>My daughter is a dancer and is not on the paleo diet. Her ankle
>occasionallly "gives out."What is this a symptom of, and would a paleo diet
>help?? Is this some kind of dietary insufficiency?
>
> Not much hope unfortunately for getting her to agree to a paleodiet, but I
>thought I would ask. Thank you, Mary