What Can I Do for Myself Now To Promote Bone Health in My Future?
— all you ever wanted to know about those 206 bones in your adult body —
With so much current research being directed at bone health, questions probably occur to you as you consider your own skeleton framework. How healthy and strong actually are those bones of yours — all 206 of them? Is there anything you could do now to improve bone density and maintain strength into the future? For example, what changes to diet, exercise and lifestyle are likely to have good, long-term payoffs for better bone health?
Bone Health: Starting at the Beginning
From the experts at Mayo Clinic comes information that bones can play many roles in the human body. Among other functions bones provide structure, protect organs, anchor muscles and store calcium. Those healthcare professionals at Mayo also advise that, while it is particularly important to build strong, healthy bones in childhood and adolescence, you can also take steps during adulthood to maximize bone health. In other words: it’s really never too late!
To understand how the whole regimen for optimal bone health works, remember that bones are made of dynamic tissue. Bones are forever changing. New bone is being synthesized to replace old bone. At the same time existing bone tissue is constantly being broken down to free constituent elements for recycling. During childhood and adolescence the body makes new bone tissue faster than it breaks down old bone; therefore, bone mass increases over that early-life interval. Most people achieve maximum bone mass at about age 30. Later in the life cycle bone remodeling continues of course. After the third decade, though, a typical person’s bone-building balance shifts. Losses outpace gains from then on.
Danger of Developing Osteoporosis
How likely are you eventually to develop osteoporosis? This condition is a principal cause of bones becoming weak or brittle later in life. The onset of osteoporosis largely depends on two factors:
- how much bone mass you achieve by the age of 30
- how rapidly you lose it after that
Osteoporosis leads to a critically increased risk of bone fractures, typically in the wrist, hip and spine. As those bone health researchers at Mayo Clinic summarize: “The higher the peak bone mass, the more bone you have ‘in the bank’ and the less likely you are to develop osteoporosis as you age.”
Are you concerned now about your bone health and composition or your risk for osteoporosis? If so, consider requesting your healthcare professional to order a bone density test for you. By evaluating this clinical/technical data along with your risk factors, you can make better plans. Take specific action(s) now to address and to improve your bone health. You will see the benefits as time marches on.
Beneficial Interventions
So … specifically what can you do now to improve your odds for good bone health in the days ahead? Best advice: Recognize how your current physical activity, diet and other lifestyle factors can affect bone mass as time marches on. That way you can make the wise choices today that will keep you standing straight and safe for a long, long time to come.
Please seriously consider implementing some — or all — of the recommendations which follow in the series of four short how-to-do-it Vitamin Insider articles. Among the options presented there you will find a variety of specific advice from top health and wellness experts. You can consider practical, effective measures to incorporate into your own daily routine. Don’t delay. Decide today on one behavior change that will be of benefit now and into the future. Then start immediately; put your resolution into action right now. Of course you can add more changes as time goes on. Don’t miss the chance, though, to start on the very first of them right now. Yes, you CAN do it!
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY: ITS ROLE IN BONE HEALTH
NUTRITION FOR STRONGER BONES – KEY NUTRIENTS
SALT DANGER! IMPACT OF SODIUM ON BONE HEALTH
TOBACCO AND ALCOHOL CAUTION: BONES, BEWARE!