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5 Ways to Maintain Your Bone Health

Your bone health might not be something you think about all the time, but over time, you can lose density. It’s a natural part of getting older, but it can lead to height loss, chronic pain, and an increased risk of fractures. While you can’t slow down the aging process, there are several ways you can maintain bone health in different parts of your body.

Get the Right Type of Exercise

Exercise can do more than just build muscle. Getting moving with the right types of exercise can also help strengthen your skeletal system. You may have heard that low impact exercises are better for your joints, but weight bearing exercises, like brisk walking, jogging, or running, can be better for your bone health. These exercises force your bones to work harder and stimulate bone growth and repair. If you don’t have a fitness tracker, there are free smartphone apps available that can help you determine how vigorously you are exercising.

Support Jaw Health with Dental Implants

If have lost one or more teeth, you start to lose bone density in that part of your jaw because there is no longer a root providing structure. Getting dental implants to replace missing teeth can support the health of your jaw because the implants offer the stimulation your bone needs to preserve your jaw. Regular activities, such as chewing, put enough pressure on the area for bone growth.

Dental implants do tend to be more expensive than other options, like dentures or bridges, but the long-term benefits outweigh the costs for many individuals. There are also options to make implants more affordable, including dental payment plans. You can utilize Cherry payment plans to cover out-of-pocket expenses by getting paid upfront, minimizing the impact on your wallet.

Get Enough Calcium

Many don’t get enough calcium in their diets to maintain healthy bones. This is an important mineral because it helps your body keep your bones dense and less prone to fractures. When you don’t have enough calcium in your body, your body takes it from your skeletal system first. You can get calcium from dairy, including cheese, yogurt, and milk. But you can also get it from plant-based sources, such as tofu with calcium, baked beans, and fortified soy products. Dark green leafy vegetables, such as kale, are also good sources of this mineral.

Add Vitamin D to Your Diet

While calcium is critical to bone health, if you don’t have enough vitamin D, your body can’t absorb calcium. So even if you’re getting enough calcium from your diet, your body may still take it from your bones if it’s not able to absorb it from your diet. This weakens your entire skeletal system and prevents your body from healing. You can get vitamin D from the sun if you are able to spend time outdoors. But you can also add nutrient dense foods to your diet, such as eggs, fortified cereals and breads, and fatty fishes, such as tuna and salmon.

Weed Out Unhealthy Habits

If you have unhealthy habits, you likely already know they can have a negative effect on your body. Smoking is a habit that can lead to weaker bones because of the nicotine in tobacco products. The nicotine slows down your ability to regenerate bone cells. At the same time, it also reduces blood flow to the bones, which can lead to them weakening. This means that parts of your body that already do not get a lot of blood flow, such as the spine, will become even more vulnerable.

Added sugar, whether from cookies, sodas, or breads, doesn’t help your body, and having too much extra sugar can actually hurt your bone health because it can dispel nutrients your bones need. For instance, extra sugar can make your body expel magnesium and calcium, which are both substances your bones need. Too much sugar can also prevent your body from absorbing the calcium it needs. Drinking too much can also impact your bone health for the worse because it can interfere with your body’s ability to generate new bone cells. Heavy drinking can also make you more prone to falls, which could lead to broken bones, even if you have normal bone density.

author

Chris Bates



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