Brittle Bones: What You Need To Change About Your Lifestyle

Silent conditions like brittle bones sometimes only get diagnosed when they have become severe enough to cause problems to our wellness. But in a lot of cases we may be able to prevent ourselves from getting osteoporosis by living well when we’re younger.

Why youth matters

Our bones aren’t solid masses that stop growing when we reach our full height. In fact, they are constantly undergoing some kind of changes. They are made from a combination of collagen and calcium phosphates, as well as other minerals. Cells help to renew our bones by getting rid of older tissue and replacing it with newer robust cells. When we’re in our teens and early twenties we tend to build more bone mass than we lose, which gives us a strong skeleton. But as with most bodily processes this slows down as we get older. Although this is natural, we can still end up losing too many bone cells, so our bones become light and we get diagnosed with osteoporosis.

What can we do?

One of the most effective ways to build lots of bone mass, is to take advantage of the time when our body is developing the most bone mineral density (BMD). We start to lose rather than gain BMD after our 30s, so before this period in our lives we can concentrate on giving our bodies all the minerals it needs to build us a strong frame. Eating a healthy diet that contains good amounts of Vitamin D and calcium is a good place to start. Some aspects of our lifestyle can prevent these important nutrients from being absorbed, so stopping smoking and only drinking moderately can help to boost bone health. Another way to get strong bones is to challenge our muscles and ligaments with strength training and weight resistance exercises, as the pull of our muscles will encourage bone cells to be laid down. Although these lifestyle changes may have the most impact on our bones if we start them when we’re young, they can still be of benefit if we’re older too. In fact our GPs may encourage us to alter our lives in similar ways even when we’ve been diagnosed with osteoporosis.