Protect Your Bones

 

Protect Your Bones

With today marking the World Osteoporosis Day, understand how diet, physical activity and othe rlifestyle factors can affect your bone mass. 

Use it or lose it

A study compared the bone density in an athlete's most used limb like a wrist or leg, with their less used lim. The findings showed that the athlete had a higher bone density in their hand used for sports than their supporting hand. The best exercise for bone health is resistance in training with weights or jogging on a soft surface like running track versus a hard surface like the pavement. 

Bone-friendly foods

Calcium is essential in maintaining bone health , but other nutrients are also necessary to allow calcium to be most effective in protecting bones. Focus on foods rich with vitamin D and K, such as eggs, green-leafy vegetables, chia seeds and whole grains to protect your bones. Protein is also key to protecting bone health so be sure to incorporate lean chicken or beef, fish, eggs and low fat or skimmed dairy products in you everyday meals. 

Cut your losses

We know certain foods to help build and maintain healthy bones, but what about ones that hurt  them? Foods such as processed meat, those containing high levels of of saturated fats, and sugar can significantly reduce bone density.

 

Be lean

Being underweight or overweight can cause a disturbance in your body's ability to maintain and strengthen bone density. Maintain a healthy wight to protect your bones. 

 

Smoking

The harmful habit of smoking not only affects key bodily functions but also decreases the body's ability to absorb calcium and build new bones. When you quit the habit, your body will quickly bounce back and resume its optimum levels of calcium absorption.