Preventing osteoporosis should begin in childhood, but no matter what your age, it's never too late to take steps to strengthen your bones.
These include exercising regularly and eating a healthy diet. However, lifestyle changes may not be enough if you have lost a lot of bone density. There are also several medications to consider. Some can slow your bone loss and others can help rebuild bone.
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.
Exercise
Just 30 minutes of exercise each day can help strengthen bones and prevent osteoporosis. Weight-bearing exercises, such as yoga, tai chi, and even walking, help the body resist gravity and stimulate bone cells to grow. Strength-training builds muscles which also increases bone strength.
By placing stress on bones through weighted exercise, bones react by creating new growth. This increases bone density. More than a third of men and women get little to no activity after age 40. Through strength training, bone health can be maintained or even restored to a similar density of a younger age.
In general, healthy people who undergo prolonged periods of bed rest or immobilization can regain bone mass when they resume weight-bearing activities. Studies suggest that there is a good chance to fully recover the lost bone if the immobilization period is limited to 1 to 2 months.
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.
A: It varies. If you follow your doctor's instructions and allow for adequate rest and recovery time, your bone should heal within three to six months. More extensive injuries, especially those that involve a joint, may require two years or more for optimal recovery.
The in vitro effects of caffeine on cells involved in bone metabolism suggest that caffeine intake may promote osteoporosis, and some but not all clinical studies support a modest adverse caffeine impact.
Weight-bearing exercises, such as walking, jogging, and climbing stairs, can help you build strong bones and slow bone loss. Avoid substance abuse.
Most people will reach their peak bone mass between the ages of 25 and 30.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
The best non-drug treatments for slowing/stopping progress of osteoporosis are: – Good diet with adequate protein (huge issue for older women, who tend to consume too little). – Adequate levels of Calcium, Magnesiun, Vitamin K, Vitamin D3 & Zinc.
Romosozumab (Evenity).
This is the newest bone-building medication to treat osteoporosis. It is given as an injection every month at your doctor's office and is limited to one year of treatment.
Bone loss begins to occur at an approximate rate of 0.25% a year and is variable depending on many genetic and environmental factors. This may be considered the second stage towards osteopenia and/or osteoporosis. It is important to understand that this is a perfectly normal part of the aging process.
There is no cure for osteoporosis, but treatment can help to slow or stop the loss of bone density and reduce the risk of fractures. This may involve medications, diet changes, exercise, and steps to prevent fracturing a bone.