How to prevent Osteoporosis

Many of the things that raise your chances for osteoporosis are things you can’t change, like your genes, your age, and your sex. But that doesn’t mean you can’t prevent the disease. The things you do every day can be part of your plan to build strong bones.

Regular exercise

Your bone is like your muscle, the more you exercise the more you get stronger. Weight-bearing exercise and resistance exercise are particularly important for improving bone density and helping to prevent osteoporosis.

Wight-bearing exercises include:

Aerobics
Climbing stairs
Dancing
Jogging
Tennis and other racket sports
Running
Tai chi
Walking
Water aerobics
Yoga

People over the age of 60 can also benefit from regular weight-bearing exercise. This can include brisk walking, keep-fit classes or a game of tennis.

Strength training

It is also key to preventing osteoporosis. Your muscles pull on your bones when you work them. That builds bone strength. These workouts also make you more flexible and lower the chances that you’ll fall. Examples include press-ups, weightlifting or using weight equipment at a gym.

Calcium and Vitamin D Supplement

-Calcium:

When your body doesn’t have enough calcium, it will start to break down your bones to get what it needs. That means you lose bone mass. Adults need 700mg a day, which you should be able to get from your daily diet. So it’s important to make sure you have this nutrient every day in your diet or from supplements.

Calcium-rich foods include:

leafy green vegetables
dried fruit
tofu
yoghurt

-Vitamin D:

It helps your body absorb the calcium you eat. Not many foods naturally have the nutrient, but you can get it in:

oily fish – such as salmon, sardines, herring and mackerel
red meat
liver
egg yolks
fortified foods such as most fat spreads and some breakfast cereals
dietary supplements.

Avoid the “female athlete triad”

Women who exercise and train intensely can have three issues -- thin bones, lack of a menstrual cycle, and eating disorders. It often happens to young women who stick to very restrictive diets even though they work out a lot. Athletes who have problems with their periods have lower estrogen levels. This often leads to lower bone mass.

Other factors

Other lifestyle factors that can help prevent osteoporosis include:

quitting smoking – smoking is associated with an increased risk of osteoporosis
limiting your alcohol intake – the NHS recommends not drinking more than 14 units of alcohol a week; it's also important to avoid binge drinking

Get Some Sun!

From late March/April to the end of September, sunlight triggers the production of vitamin D, which helps your body absorb calcium.
This process helps strengthen teeth and bones, which in turn helps prevent conditions such as osteoporosis.

Do I Need a Bone Density Test?

A bone density test measures a small part of one or a few bones to see how strong they are and can tell how likely you are to have osteoporosis. The most common one is called a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA or DEXA) scan. It uses a small amount of radiation to measure your bone density.
But the scan isn’t right for everyone. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force says people who should get DXA scans for bone density include:

Women ages 65 or older
Younger women who have a higher-than-normal chance of fracture for their age

Talk to your doctor about whether the test is a good idea for you.

Saturday, February 11, 2017