Do This Now to Have Strong Bones Later

The last thing you want to do is wait until your first bone-density scan before thinking about your bone health. By the time you find out that you have osteopenia (i.e., low bone mass) or osteoporosis (i.e., medically significant bone loss), it’s almost too late. 

Preserving bone mass is a lot easier than trying to rebuild it or even to halt or slow down bone loss. If you’re already focused on wellness and healthy aging, you may already be engaging in some bone-healthy habits. If you’re a novice to fitness, you may need help adjusting your lifestyle to maximize bone strength.

Bone health becomes even more important after menopause. Your bone mass declines after age 40, which means old cells die off at a rate faster than new ones can replace them. By age 70, the average woman’s lost about 30-40% of her bone mass. 

If you’re concerned about your bone health, our expert doctors Joseph Calandra, MD, and Karen Mass, MD, are here to help. At Mass Medical Imaging in Lake Forest, Illinois, we offer bone scans — also called dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans — to evaluate your bone health.

We also recommend adopting bone-healthy habits today, whether it’s time for a DEXA or not. Here’s how to begin.

Start with weight-bearing exercise

The easiest way to build or maintain your bones is to stress and stimulate them with your own weight. Weight-bearing exercise is easy to incorporate into your daily routine.

The more weight you put on your bones, the more they stimulate bone-cell growth. Depending on your fitness level, start with a brisk walk, and add more weight-bearing as you get healthier. Try:

• Brisk walking
• Jogging
• Running
• Dancing
• Jumping rope
• Trampoline jumping
• Hopping
• Hopscotch
• Tennis
• Badminton
• Pickleball
• Team sports
• Stair climbing

You don’t need equipment to add weight-bearing into your life. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Walk instead of drive. Take up a sport. Dance around your house.

If you enjoy cycling and swimming, note that they do nothing to increase your bone strength because no weight-bearing is involved. If you cycle and swim, be sure to add in plenty of weight-bearing exercise to your regimen.

Add in resistance training

A proven way to improve or maintain your bone health is by stressing them to the point where the bones are triggered to produce new bone cells. Resistance training is a prime example of “use it or lose it.” By putting pressure on your bones, they grow stronger. Without resistance, they weaken.

If you’ve never lifted weights before, don’t despair. You don’t have to head to the bench press or even to the gym. You can start with exercises that use your own body’s weight to build strength and muscle:

• Push ups
• Weight machines
• Dumbbells
• Kettlebells
• Resistance bands

Resistance training creates strong bones in yet another important way: Strong muscles put continual stress on your bones, which also stimulates them to stay strong.

Feed your bones

When you eat, you may be focused primarily on how your stomach feels and how delighted your taste buds are. Even though those are important sensations, the most important part of a meal is its nutritional value. 

When you eat for bone health, you’re also eating for overall health. Concentrate on nutrient-rich choices, such as:

• Protein from grass-fed and pastured meats, poultry, and eggs
• Healthy fats such as those found in avocados and olive oil
• Antioxidants from berries
• Calcium from cooked spinach and other greens 
• Calcium from canned salmon and sardines with bones 
• Vitamin D from fatty fish such as salmon and mackerel 
• Magnesium from sweet potatoes and artichokes 
• Vitamin K from Brussels sprouts, citrus, and strawberries
• Potassium from tomatoes, bananas, and plantains 

If you’re worried about bone health, you may also want to limit or eliminate foods that are high in oxalates, such as raw kale or raw spinach. Oxalates block the absorption of calcium. 

Ditch the bad habits

All the health advice you’ve been given or read applies to your bones, too. Cigarette smoking, for instance, dehydrates your bones, increasing your risk for fractures.

While you’re building in bone-healthy habits, ditch the ones that undermine your bone health. Eliminate:

• Smoking
• Excess alcohol
• Sugar
• High-fructose corn syrup
• Junk food
• Fast food
• Ultra-processed foods
• Processed meats

If you need help transitioning to a healthier lifestyle, let us know. We can refer you to cessation programs or medically supervised weight loss.

Don’t forget the DEXA

When it’s time for your DEXA scan, don’t play like an ostrich and bury your head in the sand. When you know your numbers, they give you and your doctor a game plan. In addition to healthy bone habits, you may benefit from supplements or medications that maintain bone mass.

Is it time for your bone-density scan? Schedule your next DEXA by calling our friendly team or using our online appointment form.