Balanced Diet
Eating a balanced diet is a lot easier than most people think. All you need to do is put in the effort to eat right and you will improve your bone health. One dietician once said that "you should eat for your body, not your taste buds." While you may not like some of the foods and they way they taste, your body will certainly appreciate it. Look for calcium-rich foods that will help to build the strength of your bones and muscles. Here are some calcium-rich foods:

• Milk


• Yogurt


• American Cheese


• Tofu


• Spinach


• Eggs


• Soybeans

When you eat or take Calcium, always make sure you are getting plenty of Vitamin D in your diet to help the calcium properly absorb into the body. Vitamin D can be absorbed through the sun. You should try and spend at least 15-30 minutes in the sun each day.

Going along with dietary changes, you need to stop consuming foods that eat away at your bone density. Consuming too much caffeine can actually take away from your bone density. Try to only consume one cup of coffee or only one soda per day. Consuming more than this will eat away at the bone mineral deposits, thereby increasing your risk of osteoporosis. Heavy drinking of alcohol is another problem when it comes to bone density. Consuming too much alcohol will also eat away at your bone density, causing you to start feeling the effects of osteoporosis at a younger age.

Exercise
Exercise can help to improve your bone health. Bone mineral density (BMD) is a term that is used to measure your bone loss. Exercising when you are younger helps to build up your bone density, thereby preventing bone loss to occur as rapidly in your older years. Doing different exercising in your younger years will help the bones develop into weight bearing exercises. Working on exercises that focus on your posture is another important thing to do as it helps to strengthen your balance, range of motion, and it prevents you from hunching over as you get older. As you start to get older, you can still perform exercises that help to strengthen your bones. Water aerobics is a great way to strengthen the muscles surrounding your bones, and you don't have any of the high impact that can cause falling. Yoga is another great exercise as it focuses on balance, flexibility, and posture. For older people, yoga is a great way to build up your muscles to keep them loose and limber, making it easier to get through the day-to-day activities.

Since many people experience falls in their older years, it is important to not only work on strengthening your body to prevent falls from occurring, you also need to take some steps to keep yourself safe. Consider moving to a one-level home instead of a multi-level home. Stairs are one of the worst things to have around as you get older because it's easy to slip and fall and break a hip. Most elderly patients that break a hip never fully recover and most die within 12 months of operation. Redo the restrooms in your home to have showers with seats in them along with non-slip mats inside. Railings in the home are another way to help keep you safe from falls.