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How Older Adults Can Maintain Their Bone Health

In his latest feature for our website, American writer Jack Shaw details how maintaining good bone health can help to improve wellbeing in later life.

As you age, your body naturally begins to change. Taking the needed steps today can help you when taking steps tomorrow. Health is not just luck or genetics. It’s about preparation and laying a firm foundation. This is where bone health is essential for older adults to continue enjoying a full and pain-free life. Bone health ensures longevity and healthy ageing, but requires optimal bone mass. With these tips below, you can discover how to build stronger bones naturally.

Bone health starts in your teens, and you build it with healthy living and the correct diet. However, you’re never too late to start paying extra attention to your health. Even if you’re a few steps behind, you can start working towards maintaining healthy bones.

What is bone health?

Your bone health is the overall strength of your skeleton and its components. When you develop good skeletal health, your mobility, strength, and general health remain optimal as you age. With healthy bones, you can avoid those scary “shower slips” that could end in a fractured hip and potentially even an emergency room visit. In the UK, there are a reports 76,000 annual hip fractures, and most older people fear falls. The recovery time involved in a hip replacement or hip fracture repair is intimidating.

When your bone health declines, your body loses its structural integrity. You could develop challenging conditions like arthritis, osteoporosis, and calcification of various joints. These conditions are usually painful and regressive, meaning they don’t improve over time. You must take action to protect your skeletal health.

Your bones naturally renew when you are younger. Following a healthy lifestyle provides the necessary nutrients for cartilage growth. Your bone density reaches optimal development in your late twenties. During your 30s, your body continuously renews bone tissue via remodelling when you lose osseous cells due to impact, fractures and remineralization or absorption of bone tissue. After your 30s, your overall bone density starts to decline, and you lose more tissue than remodelling can replace.

Painful conditions like osteoporosis develop when you lose more bone density than you can replace. You are a more likely candidate for this painful condition if you never reached peak bone density in your 30s. Skeletal health depends on how much bone density or mass you accumulate before natural growth slows down.

Healthy bones improve lifestyle and quality of life dramatically. Nobody wants to live in constant pain or with limited mobility.

What your bones need for sustained health

You need enough of the proper nutrients to develop strong bones during early formation. Follow a diet that includes calcium and vitamin D at 1,000-1,200 mg and 600–800 IU, respectively. Women typically need 1,200 mg of calcium daily, while men need 1,000 mg.

Protein intake is also related to bone health and the rejuvenation of skeletal cells. Your intake should measure at least 1.4 grams per kilogram of body weight. Several studies on vitamin K and calcium intake in improving spinal health indicate a direct link between these two nutrients and bone density.

A diet rich in various vegetables offers the most nutrient-dense benefits for bone development and maintenance. The Mediterranean diet, including leafy green vegetables, is directly linked to increased hip and trochanter bone density — areas where older adults suffer fractures and fall-related injuries. Indulging in that T-bone steak and pairing it with a robust salad is an easy way to get yourself on the right path.

How to keep bones healthy naturally

Start by following a diet rich in calcium, vitamin K, vitamin D, and sufficient protein. These help ensure effective skeletal tissue density into your silver years. You can feed your bones and your gut by eating a diet that includes dairy, salmon, soy products, green vegetables and eggs.

Include healthy physical exercise in your daily routine. Engaging in team sports not only helps you to socialise, it can boost your bone health by improving your circulation and stimulating bone-forming cells. Skip just watching the football game and join a local walking football team to get in the action yourself. If sports aren’t for you, go hiking, jogging, stair climbing or even begin weight training. Active bones ensure a healthy body and pain-free lifestyle.

A final meaningful way to improve and maintain your bone density and overall health is to avoid substance abuse. Smoking and excessive alcohol use are well-known destructive factors to skeletal health. Surprisingly, light to moderate alcohol intake can increase bone mass density, but excessive drinking causes bone density decline. Similarly, any smoking increases the risk of hip fractures by 40% for men and 31% for women, so lighting up is often not worth it for more than just your lung health.

Make the change today

The best way to maintain tissue density and avoid painful conditions like arthritis and osteoporosis is to start living bone-healthy today. Ensure you get enough exercise. Start doing some weight-carrying exercises, follow a balanced diet, avoid smoking and only drink moderately. Your bones will thank you.

As an accomplished writer and Fitness editor at Modded, Jack Shaw has established his reputation as a respected authority on sports and their effect on physical health. His work can also be found in publications such as SportsEdTV, Better Triathlete and Simply Family Magazine.