Keep Your Bones Strong With These 3 Tips

Winter is fast approaching so it seems a good time to talk about bone health, to help make your body resilient should the unfortunate event happen with a slip or fall during this icy season.

And whilst the strength of our bones naturally reduces as we move into our later years, all is not lost. There is still a lot in our control to keep our bones strong, and it is never too late to start to be proactive with your bone health!

So this week I share 3 things you can do to take care of your bones all year round, along with things to keep in mind:

1. Weight bearing exercise
Our bones love to be put under stress and tension, and this can be achieved through resistance training and weight bearing exercise. Carrying out exercise using resistance machines, bands, or body weight exercise will put tension through your muscles, and in turn but stress through your bones helping to keep them strong.

Doing intentional exercise will help to improve your balance and coordination too, which can only be of benefit for everyday activities and reducing those trips and falls.

2. Vitamin D
Also known as the ‘sunshine vitamin’, Vitamin D is essential to help regulate calcium and allows it to be absorbed into your bones. Adults exposed to the sunlight during April to September can get Vitamin D from UV rays, but adults are recommended to supplement in the UK, particularly through October to March. You can also get Vitamin D through natural sources of food, such as oily fish including sardines, salmon, and mackerel, and other sources such as eggs.

3. Eat nutritious foods
The best way to get calcium and other nutrients such as Vitamin K which help bone density is through food. Green leafy vegetables, such as spinach, kale, broccoli, and cabbage are tasty sources of calcium, as well as oily fish which we discussed previously. If you are buying tinned fish, be sure to purchase it with the bones.

Highly processed and sugary foods in excess, along with regular consumption of alcohol, caffeine, and fizzy drinks all have the potential to be harmful to your bone health, so I would recommend keeping these to a minimum.

Other areas to consider
Smoking has been identified to damage the connective tissue within bones which increases the risk of developing osteoporosis (weakened bones), so cutting this out will only be of benefit. If you are on medication, it is important to liaise with your GP to have regular reviews, as taking certain medications long term such as steroids and acid blockers, can impact the health of your bones.

The areas to focus on may sound simple, but if worked on each day will help to support the health of your bones. If you do have concerns about your bone health then please contact your GP as there are an array of tests that can be done to assess the health and density of bones.

Of course, as your Chiropractor we are always here to help too and take bone healthy seriously. We support many people with osteoporosis in practice and adapt our adjustments to suit individual needs. If you have any questions or concerns, please get in touch.

With love,

Sarah