Without question, keeping your bones strong is at the very core of staying young and feeling good. In fact, I can always spot someone who has taken care of their bones. They project strength, vitality, and stature, no matter what their age.
On the other hand, there’s nothing more telling than the hunch of a back or drooping shoulders. It can make you look and feel far older than your years.
And make no mistake, this isn’t a “women’s issue.” There are huge health implications for men as well.
Without question, keeping your bones strong is at the very core of staying young and feeling good. In fact, I can always spot someone who has taken care of their bones. They project strength, vitality, and stature, no matter what their age.
On the other hand, there’s nothing more telling than the hunch of a back or drooping shoulders. It can make you look and feel far older than your years.
And make no mistake, this isn’t a “women’s issue.” There are huge health implications for men as well.
The truth about declining bone density
What most people don’t realize is that our bodies constantly break down and build bone. It’s a natural and necessary process. But as we age, it’s a lot tougher to build bone as fast as we break it down.
As a result, our bone mass density, or simply put, the weight of our skeleton, may start to drop. In addition, our ability to absorb calcium declines and levels of vitamin D and certain hormones start to fall as we age. Plus, our modern diet can wreak havoc on bones—I’ll explain more about this in a minute.
You’ll be amazed at how your bones respond to the right nourishment
The good news is that there’s a lot you can do to help keep your bones strong and resilient as you age. Remember, bones are living organs that remodel themselves constantly. Nurture them, feed them properly, and they will respond.
If there were a single magic nutrient that would protect, strengthen, and keep bones healthy, would be a miracle. But none exists for such a complex health issue. The biggest mistake people make these days is to depend on calcium to save their bones.
Don’t misunderstand, calcium is necessary to help prevent bone loss. It makes up as much as 99 percent of your bone, so it’s essential to replenish it to strengthen bones and reduce bone loss. But calcium alone—even in high doses—will not do the trick.
Avoid these calcium mistakes
First off, calcium is a very hard mineral to absorb. As a result, a lot of practitioners believe that you must take many forms of calcium to absorb it properly. Studies disagree.
Based on bioavailability studies, the form of calcium really does not matter as much, it’s what your body does with it that counts. This viewpoint may not make me popular with some colleagues, but I don’t get paid to be popular.
And then there’s the vast array of drug store calcium formulas that rely on peak levels of calcium as the solution. Again, since calcium is hard to absorb, taking higher levels is pointless, in my opinion. Plus, you need to consider the other sources you’re already getting calcium from—like a multi-nutrient and the foods you eat. There’s no sense in taking more than you need—or more than your body will even use.
Here’s a plan to reduce bone loss and promote bone growth
I’m convinced that getting the right balance of nutritional supplements is one of the most important keys to maintaining strong, resilient bones. In addition, foods and exercise can play a major role, too.
- “Balance” your foods For starters, our modern diet is filled with an abundance of foods that can wreak havoc on bones.
- Coffee addicts beware: Drinking more than three cups of coffee a day can increase your risk of thin, porous bones by 85 percent.
