Orthopedic Specialist Johnstown — Improve And Maintain Bone Health - Clintech

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How to Improve and Maintain Bone Health

October 20, 2020

Bone health is extremely important, especially when it comes to making sure your body holds up to the stress of aging. Without proper bone health, your mobility can start to decline prematurely. Unfortunately, a loss of mobility is the first step towards many more health problems, but no need to worry — ClinTech Center for Spine Health is here to help.

There are plenty of factors that go into whether or not your bones are healthy. There are key vitamins, minerals, and nutrients needed of course, but there’s also proper exercise and risk factors to consider. All of these factors need to be considered if you’re concerned about your bone health and density. The information here is just the start to good bone health, so be sure to check back with our blog or visit the ClinTech Center in Johnstown for an expert opinion!

The Basics of Good Bone Health

Whenever someone talks about getting any part of their body healthy, it almost always seems like healthy eating and exercise comes up. Well, that’s because it’s critical for all-around wellness, but especially when it comes to your bones, because a lack of mobility is a major factor in developing other ailments.

What Eating Healthy Means For Bones

Eating healthy is complicated, often because eating healthy means different things to different organs, muscular, and skeletal systems. However, there is plenty of overlap. Taking some of this information to heart should help you improve your bone health and density and contribute to helping other systems as well.

Eat Lots of Vegetables — Even if they didn’t know why they were saying it, all those comments about eating your vegetables in order to grow up big and strong are true. Many vegetables contain vitamin C, which stimulates the production of bone-forming cells and has antioxidant properties that some studies suggest play a role in protecting bone cells.

While vitamin C may help protect bones, building them up in the first place is vital. Calcium and other minerals directly contribute to bone density — the measure of the amount of calcium and other minerals in your bones. A low count here is one of the things that helps determine osteoporosis — a common and serious orthopedic condition.

Finally, even before you’re able to build up your bones, you need to have the tools to absorb calcium. This means loading up on enough vitamins D and K. Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium, so while you might have more than enough calcium, it could be going to waste in addressing your bone density if you’re not getting enough vitamin D. Vitamin K serves a similar function, enabling the process of bone formation because of the way it interacts with certain proteins.

This is just the beginning of eating right for your bone health, but it is a start!

The Benefits of Exercise on Your Bones

Exercise and orthopedic health have a complicated relationship. On the one hand, the worse your orthopedic health gets, the harder it will be to perform certain activities, because of both functionality and the pain you’ll be in. On the other hand, if you’re not exercising enough, then you’re putting your orthopedic health at risk. Exercise and resistance training is paramount to healthy bones.

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“No Pain, No Gain,” was likely coined in sports or war, but it’s a phrase that rings true with bone growth and bone health. That’s because weight bearing or high impact exercises might hurt when you’re in a recovery stage, but they also stimulate the formation of new bone growth. Weight lifting has been shown to increase bone created in peak youth years and in older age, however there is a point where the benefits of weight lifting may taper off at a certain age.

High impact cardio activities, such as taking brisk walks, dancing, or playing sports can also provide similar benefits. That leaves little excuses about the types of exercise you like — there’s got to be at least one! Plus, it will help you get the vitamin D discussed in healthy eating because the sun is one of the best ways for us to absorb it!

Effects of Smoking and Drinking on Your Bones

Smoking and drinking is rarely good for us, and this is particularly true for your bones. Each interacts with your body in a different way to either degrade bone density or to slow its growth altogether.

Smokers are at a much greater risk for osteoporosis than non-smokers. While scientists aren’t completely sure why, as there are a number of lifestyle factors related to smoking that cause a loss in bone density, it’s clear that smoking alone has some effect on bone density. Even when the other lifestyle factors don’t apply to smokers, they’ve still shown a higher risk of osteoporosis.

However, a few inhibiting factors of cigarettes have been identified that are almost undoubtedly associated with lower bone density. They include; restricting oxygen rich blood from areas nourishes bones, a lower ability to absorb calcium, and nicotine slowing the production of bone forming cells.

Drinking is a little simpler, but the effects could be devastating. When it comes to bone health, damage from drinking includes a lack of calcium absorption and a decrease in bone density. The effects are most profoundly seen in teens and young adults, who studies show can essentially stunt their bone growth with heavy drinking early on. However, increased deterioration is also seen in adults who develop drinking problems later on.

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR BONE HEALTH WITH THE CLINTECH CENTER

Taking care of your bones can be a challenge, especially when you didn’t know everything you needed to know about bone health until you’ve gotten older. If you live in the Johnstown area, let the ClinTech Center for Spine Health help you today. Give us a call or contact us now.