Let’s start with a question, how many people do you know who live an active lifestyle? Not many? When you live a lifestyle where physical activities are limited or less than your body requires, this can cause bone loss and weakness.
People with a history of multiple fractures, people who find it difficult to stand for long hours and feel weakness and malaise, should consult a doctor to get tested for osteoporosis.
What is osteoporosis?
When your system deteriorates bone density, it is known as osteoporosis. The word ‘osteo’ means bones and ‘porosis’ means decreased density. This condition comes with medical risks like mortality, risk of fracture and morbidity, which drastically changes your lifestyle.
Nearly 200 million people suffer from osteoporosis starting from the higher age group and most people 60 above. Women during the post-menopausal time are prone to develop osteoporosis compared to men.
Causes of Osteoporosis:
1. Bone loss has a lot to do with your food choices and what you eat on a daily basis. To get healthy bones, your body requires titration in gain.
2. The other factors that define your bone health are your physical activity and hormonal balance.
3. If there are any alterations in the finely tuned physiology, it can cause bone loss and decrease your bone quality.
4. If you are not consuming enough protein and calcium, the lack of these essential nutrients can cause inadequate absorption of calcium and vitamin D that further causes weakness in the bones, reduce bone strength and tissues healing.
5. People who consume excessive alcohol, tobacco and anorexia are prone to develop deficiencies that can lead to osteoporosis.
6. If someone is suffering from hormonal imbalance are prone to develop bone loss, certain hormones like estrogen, testosterone, and thyroid are needed to run your system. However, any hormonal changes can cause bone loss.
7. Therefore, during menopause, women need to be extra careful about their bone nutrition because if they ignore their bone health, this can cause osteoporosis.
One of the major reasons that are resulting in weak bones and low bone density is the lack of sunlight. As we all know, sunlight is the purest form of vitamin D that is good for your bones and calcium absorption in your system.
Other Factors that cause Bone Weakness:
1. Age
2. Family history
3. Gender, like women, are prone to develop bone-related diseases compared to men.
4. Young people who are suffering from gastrointestinal issues face hormonal imbalance and are not able to consume the necessary diet face excess weight loss and gain are also prone to develop bone weakness and therefore it is important to consult your doctor to prevent your bone loss.
Women are more likely to Develop Bone loss vs. Men?
If you look at the population, women go through various phases like childbirth, hormonal changes, menses and breastfeeding that can cause various bodily losses and if they do not take care of their diet, bone loss is a bigger possibility compared to men.
Females who eat healthy, seasonal, include essential nutrients to their day-to-day diet and exercise need not worry about bone loss or osteoporosis.
Early Signs of Bone Loss:
1. Pain in the bones.
2. Weakness in the bones.
3. Easy fatigability in the bones.
4. Malaise.
It is important to avoid fractures in osteoporosis because it can lead to poor strength to hold implants. Some of the risk areas are the hip, spine and wrists.
Nutrition is the key to Healthy Bones:
No matter what problem you are facing, nutrition can play a vital role in preventing or reducing the effect of any disease same goes for osteoporosis. If you are consuming the required amount of essential nutrients, this can keep osteoporosis far away from you and you do not have to worry about your bone loss. However, other factors cause osteoporosis despite that, a good, well-balanced diet definitely prevents you from various health problems.
With the help of the food, you provide nutrition to your tissues for maintenance and repair. A well-balanced meal that contains essential carbohydrates, multivitamins, protein and minerals is essential for your system’s well-being.
Foods that are an Excellent Source of Calcium and Protein:
1. Milk
2. Soy.
3. Fish.
4. Tofu.
5. Nuts.
6. Sprouts.
7. Eggs.
8. Meat.
9. Peanut.
The daily requirement of protein depends on person to person; however, you need 1gm/kg as per your body weight daily. The key to preventing osteoporosis is a well-balanced diet.
If you exercise daily or 150 minutes every week, this can cause also prevent you from bone loss and weight training is also really good for strong and healthy bones.
It is also essential to get sunlight exposure for at least 15 to 30 minutes every day. However, the absorption of vitamin D depends on various factors as clothing, skin pigmentation, environment, and season.
Sleep is also an important factor for your bones’ health because it gives to for your muscles and tissues for recovery and maintenance and therefore it is require sleeping for 6 to 8 hours. However, if you feel energetic after sleeping for less than 6 hours, it is up to you.
We can cure osteoporosis?
If the condition is diagnosed on time, this can be really helpful to manage and treat osteoporosis. The treatment includes three things-medications, diet and exercise.
However, you need to prevent such diseases before you develop serious symptoms.