Strong bones, how to ensure you have them?
Strong bones are vitally important to most people. How to ensure you have strong bones will require some though about what you eat and do. Strong bones allow activity in the early stages of life as well as latter in life. When a person has strong bones they are less likely to get broken bones, osteoporosis, and they can be active. So if you want to ensure you have strong bones, there are two major things to do, take calcium and exercise.
Calcium builds bones better than any other food or vitamin. Strong bones will limit the chance of osteoporosis. The strengthening of strong bones will need to start at an early age to ensure strong bones later on. For the human body, bone mass (how thick and sturdy the bones are) develops quickly between 10 and 20 years. This bone mass peaks at age 30. Continual consumption of calcium will ensure the strength of the bones. After the age of 35 a person will loose 1% of bone mass every year. With calcium and exercise a person can restore bone mass that will be lost.
|
|
Ways to get calcium to ensure strong bones range from vitamins to the food you eat. When taking calcium, it is important to know that vitamin D will help your body transfer the calcium to your bones. The vitamin D needed for younger people is about 15 minutes of sunlight three times a week. Older people that don't get outside will need to take a supplement. What is needed for older people is about 600 IU of vitamin D, and for younger people 200 IU a day.
If you are not sure how much calcium you need to ensure you have strong bones, here is a list. Children 1-3 years, 500 mg. Children 4-8 years, 800 mg. Youth 9-18, 1300 mg. Adults 19-50, 1000 mg. Adults 51 and over, 1200 mg. Women nursing or pregnant will need more than the typical adult by 300-500 mg.
Now how to get the calcium to ensure you have strong bones. The best way is to eat foods high in calcium. These are the dairy foods that you hear "3 a day" about so often. There are many dairy products rich in calcium, milk and cheese are among the highest. The milk can be flavored and still have the calcium, or try yogurt. There are even dairy products for those that might be lactose intolerant. Besides dairy foods there are a variety of foods to eat that are high in calcium. There is salmon, kidney beans, black beans, broccoli, tofu and sardines, to name some choices. Eat a variety and your body will be healthier.
Strong bones also need exercise. Exercise can actually earn back some of the bone mass lost naturally with age. If a person can regain 1% of bone mass with exercise, they will decrease the chance of a broken bone by 5%. A body needs weight bearing exercise to rebuild bone mass. These exercises do not need to be a weight-training program to accomplish this. For those who don't want to go to a gym, there are other ways to build strong bones. For example, try walking more, like during lunch, or in the parking lot. Take the stairs to help strengthen your hips. Do some yard work, like shoveling snow, or raking leaves. This also helps with the vitamin D needed. Weight bearing exercise doesn't mean carry around weight. You really need to use the weight of your body in different ways to strengthen the bones all around.
Strong bones, how to ensure you have them, is to make sure you have enough calcium and exercise. When taking calcium, try to eat foods rich in calcium, and then go to the supplements if needed. Get some vitamin D to help the bones get the calcium. And don't forget to exercise. Exercise will build the bone mass that will ensure strong bones.
