Hope you are enjoying the Summer sunshine ?? The importance of healthy bones...

The importance of healthy bones...

Looking after your bones is the topic for this month as bone health is pretty important to your overall health especially as you get older.

Osteoporosis is a health condition that weakens bones making them more likely to break from an impact which ordinarily would not cause a problem.?Because it slowly develops over a number of years it is not usually diagnosed until a fall or sudden impact causes a fracture. It is a condition that is far too complex to cover in detail in this newsletter so I will give you the basics and you can look here for more information.?

Understanding the risk of developing osteoporosis means you can make changes to reduce those risks.

The good news is that it's never too late to make those changes to improve your bone health even after a diagnosis, so read on to find out what you can do to help yourself.

Things you can change to improve your bone health...

There are a number of known risk factors that can cause your bones to lose strength and increase the risk of developing osteoporosis. Fortunately, there are things that you can change to reduce these risks including:

Eat?healthily - If you have low body weight you are likely to have less bone tissue and the older you are the less fat padding you will have around the hips to cushion the impact of a fall. A?healthy diet will help to maintain optimal body weight and bone strength and you can find out more here. Aim for foods that are minimally processed?including whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. It is also worth increasing?your calcium and vitamin D intake and limiting caffeine and carbonated drinks.

Stop smoking - This slows down the cells that build bone in your body and if you are female smoking increases the risk of early menopause. Postmenopausal women have an increased risk of osteoporosis and therefore breaking a bone.

Reduce alcohol consumption - Alcohol adversely affects the cells that build and break down bone and can cause it to be broken down faster than it is rebuilt.?This will reduce?bone strength and increase?the risk of osteoporosis. It can also make you unsteady on your feet and increase?the risk of a trip or fall.?

Improve your balance -?If you have poor balance, coordination and reflexes you are more likely to stumble or trip and potentially break a bone in a fall. This can be improved with exercises involving muscle strengthening?and weight-bearing which are covered in more detail here.

Things you can't change to improve your bone health...

Here are some risk factors that you can't change:

Genetics -?Your genes determine the potential size and strength of your skeleton and research has shown that if one of your parents broke a hip you are more likely to break a bone yourself.

Ageing - From your late 30's the amount of bone tissue you have starts to naturally decrease and this will happen at different rates in different people. As you get older your bones lose?strength and are more likely to break regardless of bone density (amount of bone tissue).

Being female - Osteoporosis is more common in women than men as their bone density reduces at a faster rate after menopause. This is because of the female sex hormone, oestrogen which decreases after menopause. Other factors include the fact that women tend to live longer and have smaller bones both of which are predictors for increased risk of fracture.

Being Caucasian or Asian - Being Afro-Caribbean reduces the risk of osteoporosis because of increased bone size and density meaning that bones are stronger.

A history of broken bones -?If you have already broken a bone, research has shone that you are 2-3 times more likely to break another one.

While you can't do anything to change the risk factors listed you can reduce their impact by implementing changes that have a positive impact on your bone health as covered in the previous section.

Did you know...about your bones?

We have talked about your bone health now here are some facts about your bones that you may not know.

• Your bones are composed of 31% water.
• Pound for pound your bones are 4 times stronger than concrete.
• On average your bones only make up 14% of your bodyweight.
• We have over 300 bones at birth and some fuse so that we have 206 by the time we are an adult.
• The hardest bone in the body is the jawbone.
• The feet account for 1/4 of all of the bones in the human body.
• The human skeleton renews itself once every 3 months.

...And Finally...the joys of science!

Feel free to share this newsletter with anyone you think might be interested, especially if they are in pain and could benefit from a chat with their friendly neighborhood osteopath.

Thanks for reading and take care until next time.

Bob Allen

01604 532853 - [email protected] - www.sollusosteopathy.co.uk