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Guide for How to Get Healthy Bones

Wondering how to get healthy bones?

There are a range of vitamins and nutrients our bodies need for healthy bones and joints, and, as we get older, it’s important to keep our bones strong to prevent injury.

To begin with, don’t forget to check out our Ultimate Guide to Bone And Joint Health!

This article will help you learn how to keep your bones healthy and strong! Jump there now:

• How Do I Make Sure My Bones Are Healthy?
• What Is Good for Healthy Bones?
• How Can I Make My Bones Stronger?
• Healthy Bones Exercises
• Healthy Bones Tips
• End Note
• FAQs

How Do I Make Sure My Bones Are Healthy?

Did you know that around age 30, you reach your peak bone mass? Various minerals you consume throughout childhood, adolescence and adulthood go into making your bones healthy, so it’s important to eat a variety of foods in your early years. If not, you have a higher risk of having fragile bones that break easily and a low bone mass later in life.

Once you pass your peak, your body still creates new bone, but with slightly less bone mass each time.

Some symptoms of poor bone health include stooped posture and a loss of height, broken bones occurring from a minor fall or injury, as well as unexplained back pain.

If you’re interested in how healthy your bones are, you can speak with your doctor to get a bone density test. This can check your bone density and help you determine your bone loss rate. In Singapore, you can head to a Mobile Bone Mineral Densitometry location to scan your bone calcium content, which helps determine early loss of bone mass. There are also some online bone health assessments you can take, such as Know Your Bones.

Once you’ve had your bones checked, you’re on your way to possibly strengthening them!

Further Reading: Top Supplements for Gout

What Is Good for Healthy Bones?

There’s some preliminary research showing that collagen, the main protein in bones, may help protect bone health, but more research into this is needed.

What about what we know for sure about what our bones need? Let’s go through this, but first, a definition!

Definition: Bone density is simply a measurement of the amount of calcium and other minerals in our bones.

Nutrition for Healthy Bones

If you’re looking for healthy food for bones and joints, then know that our bones require a range of nutrients to stay strong.

Vitamins and minerals in food for healthy teeth and bones include:

• Vitamin C: Bone forming in the body requires vitamin C! This vitamin may also help protect our bone cells from damage as well as help increase bone density. Make sure you eat a lot of green and yellow vegetables, as these are high in vitamin C, which has been linked to better bone mineralisation in early childhood and then maintaining bone mass in young adults. A study also found that women who had more than nine servings of various vegetables had a lower bone turnover, with a high turnover and risk of developing osteoporosis.
• Protein: Around 50 per cent of bone is made of protein and it’s been found that eating less protein can decrease calcium absorption, which hinders bone formation and may affect breakdown. Older women also may see better bone density when they eat more protein.
• Calcium: This is the main mineral found in our bones, so it’s important to eat enough calcium throughout the day to protect bone structure and strength. Don’t just consume your calcium intake in one go, though, as it’s been found that calcium is better absorbed when consumed in smaller amounts throughout the day.
• Vitamin D: Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium, so it’s extremely important for bone health and to protect against bone diseases. Those with low vitamin D levels are found to have lower bone density.
• Vitamin K: This mineral, particularly, vitamin K2, modifies a protein called osteocalcin, allowing it to bind to the minerals in our bones to then protect against the loss of calcium in our bones.
• Magnesium: This helps convert vitamin D into the form that helps with calcium absorption and a study found that those who had 400mg each day had a higher bone density.
• Zinc: Zinc is also found in our bones and is needed to form our bone-building cells. It also prevents our bones from breaking down too much. You don’t need much of it, but studies have shown it helps maintain bone density in older adults.
• Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Omega-3 can help protect against bone loss as we age, but make sure you balance your omega-3 to omega-6 intake to a ratio of 1:1 as a study found that those who had more omega-6 than omega-3 had a lower bone density than those were more balanced.

Further Reading: Supplements for Joint Pain

How Can I Make My Bones Stronger?

So, how to make bones and joints strong?

One way to do this is to build up your strength. This not only helps your muscles grow, but also helps form new bone!

You can do this through weight-bearing exercises and high-impact exercises. Studies following older women and men who did weight-bearing exercises found an increase in bone density, bone strength and bone size, along with lower markers of inflammation and bone turnover. Not only that, but it may also help protect against bone loss, osteoporosis and osteopenia in younger and older women.

Further Reading: The Best Anti-inflammatory Supplements

But what about how to strengthen bones and joints naturally?

Other than strength exercises and making sure you eat enough of the vitamins and minerals mentioned above, make sure to also avoid extremely low-calorie diets. While dropping a couple hundred is common to help lose weight, eating fewer than 1,000 calories per day can lower bone density, no matter your weight.

Make sure to maintain a stable and healthy weight, too, as this can support your bone health. Being underweight can actually increase your risk of osteoporosis while being overweight can reduce bone quality and increase your risk of getting bone fractures due to the stress of the excess weight.

So, how long does it take to build bone density? It takes patience to build up your bone density, taking, for young adults, at least three to four months. If you have been diagnosed with osteoporosis, this may take longer.

Healthy Bones Exercises

If you are physically inactive, you have a higher risk of developing osteoporosis, so it’s important to exercise regularly.

As mentioned above, make sure to do weight bearing exercises, such as brisk walking, stair climbing, running, skipping or hiking. Try doing this along with resistance training (lifting weights), to strengthen your muscles and bones.

Try to incorporate more short bursts of high intensity/high impact exercises (think jogging, skipping or jumping) into your routine, as these are often better at improving bone health than longer periods of walking.

Try to make exercise fun as you get older by attending exercise classes, whether it be through your local gym or clubs!

Further Reading: Exercise Anti-Aging Routine

If you have osteoporosis, however, you should avoid certain exercises that can twist your spine and hips, such as bowling, tennis or golf.

Healthy Bones Tips + Things to Note

Many factors affect your bone health, so here are some further tips to take note of as you try to improve yours:

• Tobacco and alcohol weaken bones and may increase the risk of osteoporosis.
• Women need to be more aware of their bone health as they have less bone tissue than men, even more so if you’re a woman with a small body frame.
• If you’re white or of Asian descent, you have a greater risk of osteoporosis, so it’s important to improve your bone health if this is you.
• If you have thyroid issues, such as having too much thyroid hormone, this can cause bone loss.
• Too low testosterone levels can cause a loss of bone mass in men.
• For women, the dropping of oestrogen levels at menopause can increase bone loss.
• If you take corticosteroid medications long term, this can damage bone.
• If you take medications, such as those to treat breast cancer anti-seizure medications, speak to your doctor to see if they can increase your risk of osteoporosis, as many can.
• HIV, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes can also cause poor bone health.

End Note

Now you know the answer to the question, ‘How do I keep my bones healthy?’

Since bone disease symptoms often don’t appear until our bone loss is quite advanced, it’s important to develop healthy nutrition and lifestyle habits as soon as possible to help build and then maintain strong bones.

If you’re looking for supplements for bone health, try out Xandro’s Magnesium Glycinate 500mg, Calcium AKG 500mg and BCM 95® Turmeric Curcumin 400mg! These help your bone formation and muscle performance and help reduce your inflammation, so click the links to see if any suit your health targets!

FAQs

Which foods build bones?

As mentioned above, foods rich in calcium, vitamin D and magnesium help build strong bones. Some examples include:

• Dairy products (milk, yogurt, cheese)
• Leafy greens (kale, spinach)
• Fish (salmon, sardines)
• Nuts and seeds (almonds, chia seeds)
• Fortified foods (orange juice, cereals)

Can you rebuild bone density?

Yes, you can improve bone density with a healthy diet, weight-bearing exercises (like walking or lifting weights) and enough calcium and vitamin D. In some cases, medication may be needed. It takes time, though!

How do you make good bones?

To build and maintain strong bones, you should:

• Eat foods rich in calcium and vitamin D
• Exercise regularly (focus on weight-bearing activities)
• Avoid smoking and drinking excessive alcohol
• Get enough sunlight for vitamin D

What is a healthy bone mass percentage?

For adults, healthy bone mass usually ranges from 3 to 5 per cent. For example, a woman weighing less than 50kg has a healthy bone mass weight of 1.95kg, compared to a man weighing less than 65kg with a healthy bone mass weight of 2.65kg. This varies by age and body type. Regular exercise and proper nutrition can help maintain healthy bone mass.