TIPS FOR BONE HEALTH

This week’s blog is about bone health. A topic that rarely gets mentioned until we start to age. When in fact talking about it sooner rather than later will help you in the short and long term. 

It’s important you have the information and tools to help you build healthier, stronger bones. Approaching it from a preventive standpoint before problems occur is always the best way. 

It makes no sense to wait for your bones to become a problem before doing something about it. Even if you are later on in life, there is still so much that can be done. 

WHY IS BONE HEALTH SO IMPORTANT THOUGH? 

Bones play many roles in the body — providing structure and support, protecting organs, anchoring muscles and storing calcium. It plays a role in biochemistry and hormone levels too. 

If the bones of the spine become an issue this can have a significant impact on quality of life, as the spinal cord is what controls our ‘life’ via messages from the brain!

Your bones are continuously changing — new bone is made and old bone is broken down. This happens more so when you are younger. Most people reach their peak bone mass around age 30. The higher your peak bone mass the less likely you are to suffer from osteoporosis in the future. One very significant reason why bone health is important BEFORE you get old. 

Three areas in your life that you can make changes to, to help improve your bone health include:

NUTRITION 

Be sure to have a natural and varied diet. Avoid too much sugar and dairy. A majority of us drink milk for calcium. Where it is in fact a lack of Vitamin D that is the issue. Milk, along with sugar is also very pro-inflammatory, this can aggravate bone conditions such as arthritis.

Be sure to also supplement Omega 3  for great bone health. Vitamin D supplements are also worth considering. Especially if you aren’t getting enough natural sunlight, more so in the winter months. 

MOVEMENT 

Include physical activity in your daily routine. Weight-bearing exercises, such as walking, jogging, and climbing stairs, can help you build strong bones and slow bone loss.

If the only thing you can manage is walk that is more than enough. Just make sure you do it daily. For the upper body, exercises like push up are great. If you can’t do full push-ups, be sure to adapt them to make them easier. Either on your knees or even standing and doing push-ups against a wall work well too.  To stimulate and maintain strong healthy bones, weight-bearing exercise is important and necessary. 

ALIGNMENT AND CORRECT FUNCTION OF THE JOINTS IN YOUR SPINE AND REST OF THE BODY

As much as weight-bearing is key, it is also important to have good alignment otherwise one side of the body will take a disproportionate amount of weight, which leads to an overgrowth of bone on that side (arthritis) and a weakening of bone on the other side (osteopenia).

One of the many reasons to get your spine checked and adjusted regularly by your Chiropractor. 

I hope these tips have helped. With any change, the hardest bit is usually making a start. So I urge you to start straight away. With health, small consistent changes over time can make a huge impact to the quality of your life.