Bones play an essential role in providing structure, anchoring muscles, protecting organs, and storing calcium. It is important to work on bones health during childhood and adolescence because those are the most crucial times for your bone health. In adulthood, you can take steps only to protect your bones. If your bone gets fractured, you can visit an Orthopedic Surgeon in Doctors Hospital Lahore.
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What Affects Bone Health?
Various factors can affect bone health. They can be described as:
Calcium Intake
The amount of calcium you intake daily affects your bone health. Low calcium intake can lead to early bone loss, diminished bone density, and increased risk of fracture. To get enough calcium through natural foods, you must incorporate milk into your diet.
Physical Activity
Living an inactive lifestyle can put you at a higher risk of osteoporosis. When you do not do strength training, your bones do not get strong.
Cigarette and Alcohol
Smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol can affect your bones adversely. Tobacco in the cigarette can weaken your bones, eventually putting you at risk of getting fractures and osteoporosis. In the same way, alcohol also has adverse effects on your skeletal system.
Men who drink more than two drinks per day and women who drink more than one drink per day are at increased risk of osteoporosis- a condition in which thinning of bones occurs.
Sex
Women are at increased risk of osteoporosis as compared to men. It happens because their hormones play a role in keeping bones healthy. When a woman reaches menopause, her estrogen levels decline, causing a decrease in bone density. Your healthcare providers will prescribe hormones or medications to protect your bones.
Age
As you age, your bones become weak. In the growing stages, bones repair fastly. But when you become old, they get thin. The chances of osteoporosis also increase by age.
Hormones
A disbalance of hormones can also cause bone loss. Abnormal functioning of the parathyroid gland or too much thyroid gland can cause your bones to weaken. At menopause, women have low estrogen levels in their bodies that can cause their bones to thin. Moreover, low testosterone levels in men can also cause bone weakening.
Eating disorder or Malnutrition
If you do not get enough to eat or restrict eating because of gaining weight, it can cause bone weakening. Along with that, surgery for weight loss or celiac disease can impair the ability of your body to absorb calcium.
Medications
Taking certain medications for a long time can make your bones weak and brittle. The most common drug that can cause it are corticosteroids, such as prednisone, prednisolone, dexamethasone, or cortisone. Other drugs that can cause bone weakening are:
- Aromatase inhibitors used to treat breast cancer
- Methotrexate
- Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
- Antiseizure medications such as phenytoin and phenobarbital
- Proton pump inhibitors used to lower acidity
What Can You Do To Keep Your Bones Healthy?
To keep your bones healthy, you can exercise the following tips:
- Incorporate plenty of calcium and vitamin D into your diet. You can get calcium from external sources. For enough vitamin D in your body, sit or walk under morning sunlight daily for ten to fifteen minutes. Your body has a type of cholesterol that turns into vitamin D upon expsoure to sunlight.
- Make sure you drink at least one to two glasses of milk in a day. To avoid fat intake, you can get it skimmed.
- Make a routine of daily physical activity. When you do strength training, your bones become strong, and bone loss is slowed down.
Stop smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol. If you can not stop it, at least decrease the amount. You can also seek professional help to get rid of smoking and drinking. If you need to get bone surgery, you can visit Orthopedic Surgeon in Boulevard Hospital.
