Impact of time
One of the reasons that most of us get diagnosed with osteoporosis when we’re older, is because that’s when we’re more likely to experience wellness issues connected to the condition. Our bone density builds up throughout our childhood and early 20s, when it then starts to decrease. Although this happens to most of us naturally, bone density can fall to such an extent that we are much more likely to get fractures, but when is the best time to start protecting ourselves from the disease?
Start young
A study by the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine recently look at animal studies as a way of trying to work out how bones are affected in humans. It’s well known that we should include calcium, Vitamin C and D in our meals, but at what age does this become important? Studies on pigs showed that those fed a calcium-rich diet had better bone density than those who did not. In the animals that received lower calcium diets, bone cells were more likely to turn to fat. This study shows that the diet of babies could be of critical importance when it comes to later bone health.
Early childhood
Eating well in childhood and adolescence is necessary to bolster our bone density and reduce the risk of us developing osteoporosis in later years. Sometimes the condition strikes us when we’re young, it’s not just a problem affecting older people. This new research can give us hope as parents who believe our children could be at risk of the condition, by making sure we give them plenty of calcium.