Make No Bones About It
The skeleton is your body’s silent work horse. Most people don’t really think about their bones until they have one that breaks, but it’s important to remember how essential bone health is to your wellbeing
Our skeleton doesn’t just help us stay upright and protect our vital organs, our bones function like any other organ and are made up of a matrix of collagen, calcium and phosphorus that changes its structure to adapt to what your body needs through a process called ‘remodelling’. For example, if a person is breastfeeding, calcium is drawn out of the bones to meet the needs of the baby, or if you experience small stresses on your bones, they are healed by breaking down old bone (osteoclasts) and rebuilding new bone (osteoblasts). You will have the strongest bones during your twenties, and male bones reach a higher density than female bones.
Conditions such as osteoporosis are often associated with the elderly and no doubt you will know an older person who has fallen and broken a bone through a seemingly low impact accident. In reality, our bones actually start to weaken from as early as our mid-thirties and continue to break down by 30-40% by around age 70, culminating in easy breaks and rounded spines in old age. If you imagine your bones like the structure of a sponge, healthy bone has tight air pockets with thick, interconnected tissue, but weakened bone has large gaps and fragile architecture, which increases the likelihood of fractures. Women, in particular, are most prone to osteoporosis, as menopause has a huge impact on accelerating bone weakness. Oestrogen has two functions for bone health: it notifies your body that new bone needs to get made through osteoclasts and osteoblasts, and it helps calcium absorption. With both of these actions diminishing in their efficiency, bones start to break down more quickly. Male bones certainly do weaken, but not at the rate of female bones, because hormone changes are gradual rather than a sudden drop.
The good news is that if you look after your bones when you’re younger, it makes a huge difference in reducing the impact of natural bone density loss over time.
1. Getting the right vitamins and minerals: Calcium and vitamin D are hugely important to bone health. The best way to get vitamin D into your body is through brief periods of sun exposure on bare skin. Given that in a lot of countries the winter months lack in readily available sunshine, taking a supplement through the darker periods is highly recommended by physicians, particularly as it can be difficult to get enough through food sources alone. For your calcium intake, foods rich in the mineral include dairy products, leafy green vegetables, pulses, tofu and seeds. 2. Weight bearing exercise: Body weight and strength sessions are really important to maintaining your bones. You might think that strength training is about muscles, but when you work out under tension, fluid flows across the bones that triggers the body to release chemicals that break down old bone and rebuild new bone, keeping them renewed and strong. Short periods of high intensity and impact exercise are best and a variety of movement is important. A good rule of thumb is to exercise each muscle group twice a week, and you might want to incorporate weights or resistance bands. Although it won’t strengthen bone, yoga and Pilates are great for increasing balance and flexibility, which can help protect your joints and reduce the risk of falls as you get older. 3. Watch your toxins: Caffeine, nicotine and alcohol all reduce the efficiency of mineral absorption in the body. Studies have shown that roughly 6mg of calcium is lost for every 100mg of caffeine consumed, but the good news is that this can be offset by increasing your dairy intake, such as adding milk to your coffee.