What You Can Do to Prevent Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis doesn’t strike suddenly. Instead, it causes slow but relentless bone loss throughout your adult years.

The earlier you begin, the better your chances of preventing osteoporosis. But it’s never too late to take steps that will restore healthy bones.

At Alliance Spine and Pain Centers, we often treat people who have developed complications caused by osteoporosis. But we’d rather help you prevent the condition with the following six steps.

Prevention is crucial because osteoporosis doesn’t cause symptoms. You won’t know you have a problem until a compression or fragility fracture develops.

How osteoporosis develops

Your bones gain mass and strength until your early 30s. At that point, you have peak bone mass (the most bone you’ll ever have).

Throughout adulthood, your body maintains strong bones by slowly but consistently eliminating old or damaged bone and replacing it with new bone cells.

So, how do you lose bone mass? After you reach 40, bone loss happens faster than new bone growth. That’s when you start losing bone. Osteoporosis eventually develops if you don’t take steps to support strong bones.

Steps to prevent osteoporosis

Your lifestyle habits can tip the balance between healthy bones and osteoporosis. However, as everyone ages and when women reach menopause, you may need to take extra care.

Here are six steps you can take to protect your bones:

1. Boost dietary nutrients

Your bones need three key nutrients to stay strong and maintain bone mass: calcium, vitamin D, and protein.

Calcium and vitamin D

Calcium and vitamin D go hand in hand when it comes to healthy bones. Calcium is the building block of bones, but your body can’t absorb calcium without vitamin D.

Nearly half of Americans don’t get enough calcium. Calcium is essential for heart, nerve, and muscle function. When calcium levels fall, your body pulls it out of your bones.

The top sources of calcium include:

• Dairy products (milk, yogurt, cheese)
• Sardines
• Salmon
• Beans
• Oranges and orange juice
• Dried figs
• Chinese cabbage
• Broccoli
• Spinach
• Kale

All green leafy vegetables provide calcium and other nutrients that support your bones, like potassium and vitamin K.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D deficiencies are also common. Your body turns sunlight into vitamin D, but you still need to get it through your diet.

Unfortunately, very few foods provide vitamin D. The best sources are fatty fish (salmon, tuna, trout, and mackerel). Egg yolks and beef liver also contain a small amount.

Most people get vitamin D through fortified foods. For example, it’s added to most ready-to-eat cereals and milk.

Protein

Your bones are 35% collagen. Collagen is a protein, which means a diet low in protein increases your risk of osteoporosis.

Most people get plenty of protein from fish, poultry, meat, dairy, eggs, beans, seeds, nuts, and soy products. However, you may need to carefully monitor your protein if you follow a strict vegetarian or vegan diet.

2. Engage in weight-bearing exercises

Muscles pull on bones during weight-bearing exercises. This stimulation is essential for new bone growth.

A weight-bearing exercise is any activity in which you move against gravity while remaining upright. A few examples include:

• Walking
• Jogging
• Dancing
• Climbing stairs
• Jumping rope
• Tennis and pickleball

Strength training activities like lifting weights and using exercise bands build bones using something other than gravity for resistance.

3. Stop smoking

Smoking causes many health problems, including heart disease and cancer. It also contributes to osteoporosis. Nicotine lowers calcium absorption and decreases new bone production.

4. Limit alcohol

Consuming too much alcohol has a detrimental effect on bones. Heavy drinking contributes to osteoporosis by reducing bone density and mass.

5. Be cautious after menopause

Estrogen is crucial for new bone production. When estrogen production stops at menopause, women can lose up to 20% of their bone density in the first 5-7 post-menopausal years.

Diet and exercise are still essential, but many women may need to take medication or consider hormone replacement therapy to stop osteoporosis from developing.

6. Get screened for osteoporosis

Talk with your healthcare provider about osteoporosis screening if you meet any of these criteria:

• Women 65 and older
• Post-menopausal women
• Men 70 and older
• Men who are 50-69 with a high risk for osteoporosis
• Adults taking corticosteroids and other medications that cause bone loss

Osteoporosis screening uses dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), a type of low-level X-ray that reveals bone density.

Learn about osteoporosis prevention

Call Alliance Spine and Pain Centers or use the online scheduler if you have any questions or want to learn more about preventing osteoporosis.