Include physical activity in your daily routine.
Weight-bearing exercises, such as walking, jogging, and climbing stairs, can help you build strong bones and slow bone loss.
People can increase their bone density through strength training, dietary choices, weight management, and other lifestyle options. Bone density changes over time. Throughout childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, the bones absorb nutrients and minerals, gaining strength.
While you can never regain the bone density you had in your youth, you can help prevent rapidly thinning bones, even after your diagnosis. Here's a breakdown of five lifestyle steps to help you on the road to better bone health.
The bone-building phase in young adults -- at its speediest -- takes three to four months, and it may take a lot longer if you have osteoporosis or are older. So you won't be seeing big changes on any bone density tests after your first week of working out.
The short answer is no, osteoporosis cannot be completely reversed and is not considered curable, but there are a number of health and lifestyle adjustments you can make to improve bone loss. Your provider may also prescribe you medications to help rebuild and slow down bone loss.
Osteoporosis is not reversible, but medication, a nutrient-dense diet, and weight bearing exercise can help prevent further bone loss and rebuild bones.
The older you get, the harder it is to maintain bone strength. “We continue to build bone mass until age 30,” says Tina Dreger, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. “After age 30, we break down more bone than we rebuild.”
Studies have also shown that a moderate intake of certain alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages like wine, beer and tea may also be good for your bones. More research is also needed to better help us to better understand the relationship between these drinks and bone health.
Caffeine leaches calcium from bones, sapping their strength. "You lose about 6 milligrams of calcium for every 100 milligrams of caffeine ingested," Massey says. That's not as much of a loss as salt, but it's worrisome, nonetheless.
Weight-bearing and resistance exercises are the best for your bones. Weight-bearing exercises force you to work against gravity. They include walking, hiking, jogging, climbing stairs, playing tennis, and dancing. Resistance exercises – such as lifting weights – can also strengthen bones.
A lifelong lack of calcium plays a role in the development of osteoporosis. Low calcium intake contributes to diminished bone density, early bone loss and an increased risk of fractures. Eating disorders. Severely restricting food intake and being underweight weakens bone in both men and women.
Weight-bearing aerobic activities
Examples include walking, dancing, low-impact aerobics, elliptical training machines, stair climbing and gardening. These types of exercise work directly on the bones in your legs, hips and lower spine to slow mineral loss.
Potassium-rich foods such as bananas, tomatoes and orange juice could help fight osteoporosis in post-menopausal women by helping to reduce the level of calcium losses, report researchers from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).
For most people, osteoporosis begins after age 50. However, there are some risk factors that can make someone more likely to develop osteoporosis at an earlier age. These include: Family history.
A fracture with a low-energy mechanism of injury (e.g., a fracture after a fall from a standing height) is a red flag for osteoporosis.
Symptoms of Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is called a “silent” disease” because there are typically no symptoms until a bone is broken. Symptoms of vertebral (spine) fracture include severe back pain, loss of height, or spine malformations such as a stooped or hunched posture (kyphosis).
Getting too much vitamin D, especially above 4,000 IU per day, can be dangerous. If you already have osteoporosis, keep in mind that vitamin D and calcium alone are not enough to treat the disease. You'll need to take them along with other medications your doctor prescribes.