Osteoporosis Prevention: Ten Ways to Protect Yourself

Osteoporosis is a bone disease that deteriorates the structure of bone tissue causing fragile bones that are susceptible to fractures.  Although women are more susceptible to osteoporosis, it does affect men also (usually later in life).

According to The Bone Estrogen Strength Training (BEST) study conducted at the University of Arizona by the National Institutes of Health, 34 million Americans have low bone mass (osteopenia) and are at risk for osteoporosis.  In the U.S. there are currently 8 million women and 2 million men that have osteoporosis.  Fifty percent of women and 13 percent of men over the age of 50 will have an osteoporosis-related fracture in their lifetime.  It is a silent disease, often diagnosed after a person has suffered a fracture or broken bone.

In perimenopause, the ovaries begin to produce less estrogen, which is a bone regulating hormone.  During this period women can lose 2-5 percent in bone mineral density over a 10 year period.  After menopause, bone loss is at its highest.  Within 5-7 years after menopause a woman may lose up to 20 percent of her peak bone mass.

Osteoporosis prevention is more effective when you start at a young age.  It’s important to reach the highest possible bone density during childhood and adolescence.  By the age of 20 about 20 percent of bone has been laid down. Bone loss usually begins to occur once you reach the age of 30.

There are two types of risk factors for osteoporosis–risk factors that cannot be modified and risk factors that can be modified.  The risks that cannot be modified include having a family history, gender (female), small skeleton, caucasion/asian, medications with negative effects on bone, postmenopausal and advanced age.  Risk factors that can be modified include a sedentary  (non-weightbearing) lifestyle, excessive exercise, low body weight, heavy alcohol consumption, inadequate nutrition and cigarette smoking.

If you are at risk, don’t despair!  There are lifestyle changes you can make now that can protect your bones. I will show you 10 ways to protect yourself.

1. Get your daily “sunshine” vitamin D.  Many individuals are not getting enough vitamin D.  Without vitamin D your body cannot absorb calcium.  About 15 minutes of daily sunshine with arms and legs exposed will give you what you need.  However, you must leave off the sunscreen!
2. Organic dairy products.  If you can’t afford to eat organic, at least switch to organic dairy.  You do not need hormone laced milk in your diet.  It messes with the hormonal balance in our bodies.
3. Eat beans, nuts and seeds daily.  Calcium isn’t just in dairy products.  Beans/peas are a great source of calcium.  Good choices are chick peas, lima beans and kidney beans.  Be careful with soy beans.  I’m not a big proponent of soy beans.  Soy benefits and products have been sold to us as a “healthy” food by the soy industry.  Stick to fermented soy products.  Your best choices for nuts and seeds are sesame seeds, chia seeds, walnuts and almonds.  Eat sparingly since they do have a lot of fat.
4. Eat small fish with bones.  Sardines and mackeral are good sources.  Canned salmon is also a good source if you eat the bones.
5. Green leafy vegetables.  Include this in your diet everyday.  Good sources are spring greens, kale, parsley,brussell sprouts and bok choy.  Although spinach has a lot of calcium, most of it is not bioavailable.
6. Stop smoking.  Recent studies have shown a direct relationship between tobacco use and decreased bone density.  In addition, evidence is mounting that smoking increases the risk of having a fracture.
7. Reduce consumption of soda.  If you drink a lot of soda you may be getting too much phosphorus in your diet, creating an imbalance of the phosphorus ratio in the body.  For every gram of phosphorus you ingest, your body must match that with another gram of calcium before the phosphorus can be absorbed through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream. If the calcium isn’t available, the body will obtain it from wherever it can—such as the calcium in your bones.
8. Limit your alcohol consumption.  Chronic and heavy alcohol consumption is known to contribute to low bone mass and decreased bone formation.  It has an adverse effect on osteoblast activity, which can suppress new bone formation.  Alcohol will also slow healing of fractures.
9. Calcium supplementation is important.  Most adults 19-50 years old should be getting 1,000 milligrams daily through their diet and/or supplementation.  Over the age of 50 that should increase to 1,200 milligrams.  A word of caution: In compound formulas, you are only absorbing about 40 percent of calcium.  Look on the label for the elemental calcium content.  That’s the actual amount of calcium available.  According to the BEST study, the best supplemental form is calcium citrate or calcium carbonate.  Calcim citrate is the best absorbed form of calcium.  Taken in colloidal form may be less irritating to the intestinal wall.  Calcium carbonate requires extra stomach acid, therefore, it should be taken with a meal.  Make sure you take your supplements twice a day rather than taking them all at once.  Your body can only absorb about 400 milligrams at a time.
10. Last but not least, exercise!  It needs to be weight bearing exercise.  Walking might be good for you, but you need more to build bone.  If you prefer walking progress by adding a weighted vest and walking a hilly terrain, or hiking.  It’s more important to increase the intensity rather than the duration.  When weight training it has been found that high load/low reps is more effective at building bone.  So ladies, get rid of those three pound weights and do some serious weight training!