Preventing Bone Disease in Healthy Aging

Tip for Healthy Aging: Maintain Healthy Bones

Perhaps the truest of all the old sayings we have is, "Use it, or lose it." The older we get, the more we have to put demands on our muscles and bones to keep them healthy and strong. Our bones can be built up strong only by placing demands on them to stay strong. Maintaining healthy bones as you age is a matter of staying active and placing reasonable demands on your bones.

Exercise is very important for the maintenance of healthy bones. But exercise without an adequate diet can do nothing for the bones. You need to eat foods with plenty of calcium and exercise to keep your bones strong. Since calcium is a building block for bones, it is recommended that people of all ages get adequate calcium in their diets.

Calcium supplements may be necessary for some people. However, calcium supplements are not necessarily helpful if they are not accompanied by plenty of other nutrients of a healthy diet and sunshine. You need such nutrients as magnesium and Vitamin D in order for your body to take the fullest advantage of the calcium you take into your body.

Before moving on, we should go a little deeper into the importance of Vitamin D. You cannot underestimate the importance of getting plenty of sunlight. We may be tempted to sit inside all day as we get older, but we need activity and we need sunlight to maintain healthy bones as we age. For those with light skin, taking a walk in the sun for just 20 minutes each day can provide a healthy dose of Vitamin D. Those with particularly dark skin may require more sunlight for adequate Vitamin D.

Be careful when you are out using your bones. It is very hard to recover from bone injuries as you get older. Many people don't even survive falls in their older age. So always be very careful. But keep in mind that the best prevention for broken bones is using your bones regularly.

In our younger years, we don't worry about things like falling and breaking bones. While bone injuries rarely cause us much harm in these early years, sometimes the injuries come back to haunt us as chronic pains when we get into our 50s. This becomes particularly true if we don't use our muscles and bones enough as we get older. Then we can become very weak muscled and brittle boned. Without proper muscular support, many of our joints may also get displaced and worn. Any injuries can lead to particularly painful conditions such as gouty arthritis. We are particularly susceptible to hip fractures as we age if we don't regularly do weight-bearing exercises to keep our bones strong.

So it can't be overemphasized how important it is to keep your bones healthy. And, keeping your bones healthy is a matter of eating right and exercising your bones regularly. Providing your body with strong muscles to support your bones and joints can also be very helpful. In some cases, your doctor or physical therapist may even recommend that you do stretching techniques that will keep you limber and help prevent injuries.

A side benefit of exercise that hasn't been mentioned yet is that it helps you to maintain a healthy weight. Maintaining a healthy weight is particularly important for avoiding serious bone breaks. The more weight you carry around, the more stress falls can put on your bones. Extra weight can also be extra stress on your joints as your cartilage wears down. So yet another benefit of exercising regularly and maintaining a healthy weight is a reduced risk of breaking your bones.