Truth In Aging Series – Bone Loss And Aging

Bless Your Bones!

We all see the commercials and daytime talk shows either announcing or discussing the reality of bone loss as people get older. Keywords like osteoporosis, calcium, and bone fracture get thrown around regarding ways to prevent bone loss or slow the process down. Women, especially, are no strangers to this condition, and are often advised to take supplements and medications to improve the condition to avoid serious injuries from seemingly minor falls. However, many of us have come to expect this decline in our skeletal abilities with age, and are often told that there is not much we can do to prevent or heal it.

While many of the causes for bone loss are entirely out of our control, we can do more to keep our bones stronger for longer during our daily lives. Understanding the reasons behind it and the key habits to start implementing in our daily lives is one of the first steps toward to avoiding brittle bones that seem to break from the simplest disturbance. We will explore the key factors behind bone loss, and then delve into what you can start doing now to curb the costs. Whether you have been diagnosed with this condition, are showing symptoms, or have seen no tale-tell signs just yet, remember that the earlier you get started the better the results.

 

The Skeleton’s Slippery Slope

The initial cause of bone loss lies within loss of minerals from the body. Minerals are what make up your skeleton, and other parts of your body including hair, teeth, and nails. A multitude of different factors can play into bone loss, and it can happen to both men and women, despite the mass-marketing of bone loss products toward women. What exactly happens to cause this type of mineral loss? Is it not just wear and tear from years of usage? A lot of bodily changes can create this problem for people.

Hormonal changes are one of the main causes of rapid bone loss – especially for women. During her fifties, a woman will start on the journey of menopause. As the ovaries lose their function, causing a smaller production of estrogen. This contributes to age-related bone loss for women, as estrogen works to synthesize many processes including the structuring and rebuilding of bone tissues. For up to ten years after the initial onset of menopause, a woman’s body may still experience bone loss from this lack of estrogen. Lack of estrogen also affects the man’s ability to maintain a strong bone structure. The less bioavailability of estrogen in a body, the more likely parts of the skeleton will lose strength and crack.

Some foods can contribute to bone loss as well. Many sodas or soft drinks deplete the amount of beneficial minerals in the body. They also contain phosphorous, which causes the body to get rid of calcium through the urine, often with no calcium to put back. Caffeine can also demineralize the body as well, sapping calcium from the bones. As we get older, many of us tend to use our bodies less, and get less exercise. This can also contribute to bone loss, as less exercise leads to the bones secreting less amounts of the components responsible for maintaining proper bone thickness and functionality. Thus, the bones cannot absorb these components, since they are no longer present.

Thus, a diet of non-nutritive, mineral-depleting substances, off-balance hormones, and less exercise can have a hand in whether a person develops brittle bones as they get older. However, all is not lost just because of bone loss, and you have natural options to help you maintain a stronger frame for years to come. Whether you fear it in the future, or are experiencing the weakness and potential for danger at current, implementing some of the following suggestions could save you from both heartache and bone break. See what you are not doing in your daily routine that could help you keep a strong frame of mind and body.

 

Bettering Your Bones

Once you fully understand the underlying causes behind bone loss, it is much easier to craft a natural solution that suits your needs. Some of the most common methods for decreasing bone loss lie in prescription medications supplied by doctors, that can often run on the expensive side and have adverse side effects. However, you can create your own building blocks for bettering your bones right in your own home. Take some of these suggestions and add them to your daily routine. Keeping your bones in better shape may be simpler than you think. Whether you have just been diagnosed with bone loss or fear it in the near future, now is the time to start.

Numerous health nuts or doctors will harp on increasing your uptake of calcium in order to either combat or prevent bone loss. While calcium intake is highly important for all walks of life, it is not the only nutrient necessary to improve these conditions, and can result in calcified blood vessels and valves, which can morph into a problematic condition later on. You need a variety of minerals and vitamins to properly reestablish healthy bone density. A few of these nutrients include the following: vitamins D3, K2, and C, and minerals like boron, silica, and magnesium.

Melatonin, a hormone your body produces to regulate its sleep patterns, also keeps an optimal level of density. Your body already naturally creates melatonin. However, you can take additional supplements at night to up your body’s internal exposure to it. It slows down the actions of osteoblasts, which in turn, results in greater bone density. You could also take a multi-mineral to help increase your bodily intake of bone loss, to improve flexibility and functionality of the bones.

You can also enrich your diet with foods that offer a number of the aforementioned nutrients. From the time you were young, you have probably been told over and over to drink your milk to make your bones stronger. And of course, dairy products do offer ample amounts of calcium to improve your bone strength. However, there are a number of other foods that contain the aforementioned nutrients that you should eat more often if age-related bone loss is a concern for you. Organic cabbage, for instance, contains an impressive profile of vitamins K, B6, and C, along with calcium and folate. Oats are another example, and work almost as their own multivitamin when eaten. Finally, spinach contains vitamin K, magnesium, and calcium, all of which are highly necessary for improving the rate of your bone loss.

Finally, exercise plays one of the most important roles in improving bone loss. Three main areas that therapeutic exercise should work on include: weight-bearing, resistance, and flexibility. Whether you are just trying to prevent bone loss, or are experiencing this condition, exercise will help your body retain the existing bone mass it has. Performing exercises like hiking, gentle weight lifting, and going up and down the stairs will greatly improve the quality of your bones. Plus, exercise improves blood flow, which will deliver even more nutrients to bones themselves.

 

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References

• Osteoporosis Diet Dangers: Foods to Avoid
• Aging and Bone Loss
• Bone Loss: Epidemiology of Bone Loss
• Aging Changes in the Bones, Muscles, Joints
• Supplemental Calcium is the Wrong Approach to Age-Related Bone Loss
• Melatonin Slows Down Age-Related Bone Loss
• Slow, Stop, and Even Reverse Bone Loss
• 10 Foods to Prevent Osteoporosis