How to have Healthy Bones – Part III

So what affects your bones and promotes your risk factors?

A vast number of variables can affect the density and health of your bones, many you are never told about.  Once again I would like to remind you that your bones are living tissue. Bone tissue builds up and breaks down in a constant process, known as bone remodelling, which is what keep them healthy and strong. Many see their bones are something hard and because we can’t really see our bones their utter importance to our overall health and wellbeing can be totally dismissed.

Genetics can play an important role…statistics state you are more than 80% likely to develop bone problems if your parents have bone disease. Check to see if your mother or grandmother had or have osteoporosis. This is important to know as it gives you immediate reason to pay extra attention to your own bone health.

Hormonal changes in the body.  Some who suffer constant irregular periods or go through early menopause can be at greater risk. If this is the case for you and you are under 40 your doctor should have highlighted osteoporosis risk. Many are put onto HRT (Hormone replacement therapy for a number of years), this is far from the ideal solution and certainly can come with many side effects for some.

Speak with your health professional and identify which course of action may best suit your individual needs. Menopause or other cause of rapid hormonal changes in the body can result in some women having a rapid decline of bone mass as the oestrogen levels drop. This does not happen to everyone for many of the reasons I will outline in this series. Therefore you should always be thinking of prevention and the earlier you do the better.

Body Weight: Being underweight obviously means you have less protection against fractures should you injure yourself in some way. Being of the right weight is important as the correct level of fat cells produce oestrogen which protect your bones as you go through the change of life.

Being overweight of course does not mean you are safe either and carries with it an abundant of other risks. This is here overall assessment of your lifestyle is important re diet, stress management, exercise, other health problems etc.

Smoking: Well it doesn’t help anything in the body does it, only your nerves perhaps because that’s what you have told yourself! Therefore it certainly does not promote strong healthy bones.

Quit smoking, there is no other way. Smoking plays a big role in affecting your stress hormones which in turn will affect your oestrogen levels which then affects your bones. Get help as needed…maybe this will give you another incentive to give them up if you have not have enough incentives already.

Wishing you all great week, see you next week as I go through other very important risk factors you need to be aware of to ensure you can keep your bones as healthy and as strong for as long as you can!