With age your bones become brittle. They lose their density and become more fragile. This increases the risk of stress fractures and serious injuries that can seriously decrease the quality of your life. For this reason, it is crucial to avoid things that can take a toll on your bone health to keep them strong and healthy for as long as possible.
Below are 7 things that can weaken your bone health.
1. Eating too much salt
If you're like most Americans, you probably consume far more salt than is recommended daily. When you consume too much salt, the sodium levels in your urine increase. As a result, your body excretes more calcium through the urine.
Calcium is required to maintain your bone's health. To maintain bone health, limit your salt consumption. If you're healthy, you should take no more than 2,300 mg of salt per day, and no more than 1,500 mg if you have specific risk factors, such as high blood pressure.
2. Spending too much time indoors
The majority of the vitamin D in your body comes from sun exposure. Your vitamin D levels might be low if you spend too much time indoors under artificial light. It's crucial to get outside, whether you go for a walk in the park or spend some time outside during your lunch break.
Vitamin D is essential for calcium absorption in the body. These two nutrients act together to increase bone density and prevent weakness. Talk to your doctor about taking a vitamin D supplement if you don't get enough from natural sources. Vitamin D can also be obtained from specific meals, such as fatty fish and fortified foods.
3. Being sedentary
The best exercises for your bones are weight-bearing and resistance activities. Exercises that require you to bear weight push you to work against gravity. Walking, trekking, jogging, climbing stairs, tennis, and dancing are among them. Lifting weights and other resistance activities can also help to strengthen bones.
Choose an activity that you will love and that you will be able to maintain. The most essential thing is that you begin moving, whether it's playing tennis, hiking, or taking a stroll.
4. Having a poor posture
Muscle tension and spine misalignment can be caused by slouching when sitting or hunching over your phone. Poor posture can be harmful to your bone health and cause complications in the future.
When your spine is out of alignment, it puts too much pressure on the surrounding tissues, which can hasten age-related changes that are bad for your bones. To maintain your bones as healthy and robust as possible, start practicing good posture immediately. If you already experience problems, visit a spine doctor to get medical help.
5. Not getting enough sleep
Many facets of your health, including bone density, are linked to sleep. It's critical to give your body enough time to relax and restore itself. Sleep deprivation has been related to a decrease in bone density. To help prevent osteoporosis and preserve general health, aim for 7-9 hours of undisturbed sleep each night.
6. Eating a lot of sugar
If you have a sweet tooth, you should be attentive and keep your sugar intake under control. While there is no proof that sugar can hurt your bones, it is possible that bones can become damaged when a person consumes too much-added sugar and doesn't eat enough nutrient-rich food. If you want to eat something sweet, choose cranberries or other fruits that are high in antioxidants, minerals, and other nutrients.
7. Consuming caffeine excessively
Caffeine depletes the strength of bones by eliminating calcium. For every 100 milligrams of caffeine consumed, you lose roughly 6 milligrams of calcium. When you don't receive enough calcium each day, it can weaken your bones over time. The good news is that restricting your caffeine intake to 300 mg per day while receiving enough calcium likely compensates for any caffeine-related losses.
Tags: health