Saving Your Bones: Tips for Bone Health

For both men and women, bone health is important but often taken for granted in the early years of life. Then as aging progresses, the statistics for bone breaks increase. Friends break a wrist, an ankle, a leg. We all want to avoid this; don’t want our local orthopedist or physical therapist on speed dial.

Preserving bone, preventing falls and their subsequent breaks is important for overall health as long periods of inactivity just create other problems in the body. Also, strong dense bones insure good posture, provide physical strength for all work and activities, and aid in good balance–which is another key to preventing falls.

HOW YOU LOOK, WHAT YOUR BODY IS CAPABLE OF…

But there is another plus in our photo-conscious society. A strong skeletal frame directly impacts physical appearance. People with healthy bones, stand up straight, feel and look more youthful. Physically and psychologically they are healthier; they can embrace life without fearing loss of balance, a bad fall and a debilitating bone break. They can continue to take the stairs, walk to the park and beyond, lift their grandchildren–even move furniture or pick things up off the floor. In other words, bone health insures that the smallest AND the largest capabilities you enjoyed in your youth can still be part of you.

SO HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW… To keep your bones strong…

We now know that throughout life a diet rich in calcium, calcium supplements, and Vitamin D from sun exposure for calcium absorption are all extremely important. Avoiding the negative impact of smoking and alcohol also preserves bone health. And today physicians better understand osteoporosis and how to stop or prevent its growth.

DEFINITIONS

Osteoporosis is a disease of the bone that affects almost half of men or women over the age of 75, women being five times more likely to develop the disease. Women have thinner and smaller bones to begin with, and after menopause, usually around age 50, they lose bone mass as their bodies no longer produce estrogen, a bone-protecting hormone.

IF YOU READ ANY OF THIS POST, READ THE FOLLOWING…

Bone is living tissue that throughout life goes through the process of constant formation (new bone is formed) and resorption (old bone is broken down). But aging changes the process in both men and women. More bone is lost then new is formed. The skeleton slowly declines. Osteoporosis literally means “porous bones;” the word describes bones that have lost an excessive amount of protein and mineral content—especially calcium.  Bone mass and bone strength have decreased. Bone is now vulnerable to breaks.

Previously it was assumed that this bone aging process could not be stopped. Our mothers’ and grandmothers’ generation suffered height loss because of compression fractures in their vertebrae. These fractures often led to the formation of an abnormal kyphosis or dowager hump on the upper back. Debilitating hip and leg breaks often meant the duration of life was spent in a wheel chair.

Now there is good news for fifty-something women who have options to keep bone strong and avoid the bone loss of previous generations. We know that calcium in the diet and weight-bearing exercise can help ward off osteoporosis. We have bone density scans to check for osteopenia—the early stage of osteoporosis.  Healthcare providers often recommend the right amount of calcium supplements and stress diets rich in calcium and other minerals. For people who are at greater risk for the disease or have rapidly advancing bone loss, providers often prescribe bisphosphonate medications like BonivaR and FosamaxR that can slow or stop the progression of osteoporosis.

Men also need to be aware of this disease, for by the age of 65 or 70 they are losing bone at the same rate as women. Though osteoporosis is often considered a woman’s problem, there are 2 million men in the United States with this disease.

HOW TO FIGHT BACK 

The key is to keep bone strong by stimulating new bone growth. Research confirms that any activity that puts increased stress on your bones, making your bones and muscles work against gravity (weight-bearing exercise) helps you build healthy bone. Choose from some of the following activities:

Walking, race walking, weight-vest walking, jogging, or running

Aerobics, step aerobics

Cycling, if you can increase the resistance as some gym machines allow

Climbing stairs

Dancing, especially contra dancing, tap-dancing, polka and other folk dances that involve stomping and hopping

Sports such as soccer, basketball, tennis, volleyball, softball

Gymnastics  Weightlifting  Jumping rope  Martial arts  Tennis  Bowling

Yoga, Pilates

Housework and yardwork, like cleaning, gardening, shoveling snow

If you do Yoga, Paula Secker, an instructor of Anusara-Inspired Yoga, explains that the weight of your own body is utilized to create this weight-bearing exercise. Bones are strengthened as muscles of the body pull, hug, and shorten bone to achieve yoga poses keeping bone strong. Secker mentions popular yoga poses like downward facing dog and plank for hip, arm and leg bone strengthening. All standing yoga poses work the legs, and arm-balancing poses strengthen the upper body, which is often weak in women.

Secker emphasizes an additional benefit of yoga: it enlivens, opens and increases the energy of the body and body fluids like blood. Fluids enervate the entire body, working to increase the rate of bone cell production.

AS WE AGE…MY WOMEN FRIENDS, MY MALE FRIENDS, this is so important…avoid forward head posture….

Loss of balance is a great concern as people age—leg muscles weaken and other systems like vision, nerves and body receptors don’t supply the right signals to the brain. Secker recommends yoga for those who need to revitalize this skill, as many poses require balance, and repetition and mastery is just what the brain needs to reestablish stability.  (Or practice  standing on one leg while watching TV)

Yoga also helps Secker’s students achieve body awareness and good posture as they age. Poses require constant realigning of the body, particularly how the head sits on the shoulders. This fights forward head posture, a sign of aging, which is often exacerbated by computer work and weak musculature.

Secker stresses that there is a relationship between proper positioning of the head and the straightening of the torso and body core. Aligning the head to center position automatically tones the core and torso. Practice this when driving, imagining a cosmic head rest holding your head upright and keeping your body straight. And make sure you add weight-bearing activity to your schedule every day. For starters—take the stairs!

PS I have been dealing with my own aging processes, so every morning I do 15 minutes of Yoga and hope to increase it. Because I am now in Chicago and it’s winter, my husband and I both use a treadmill. When the snow melts, we will be off on our walks. 

photo: thanks to NewYork Parkour.com