How to improve bone health via healthy lifestyle choices as we age, especially for women
You might wonder why I highlight women in my subtitle. It is because aging women experience osteoporosis four times more than men.
Purpose of the Article
This article defines osteopenia and osteoporosis and provides six practical tips based on healthy lifestyle choices to lower risks, especially for the aging population.
What is osteoporosis, and why does it matter?
In this section, I briefly introduce osteoporosis, osteopenia, and hyperparathyroidism (from a hormonal aspect).
In addition, I highlight the symptoms, causes, diagnoses, treatment options, and impact on the aging population, especially females.
Osteoporosis refers to weakening bones that become prone to be broken when an accident happens. Our bones might get more fragile as we age due to various health conditions.
Before osteoporosis happens in the body, we first face a condition called osteopenia. It refers to the gradual reduction in bone density but might not lead to osteoporosis if precautions can be taken.
As informed by NHS, “the most common injuries in people with osteoporosis are broken wrists, broken spinal bones, and hip fractures. It might also happen in other bones, depending on the situation.”
As confirmed by NIH, “With millions of Americans at increased risk for bone fracture, it’s good to know that osteoporosis is a preventable and treatable disease.”
So, osteoporosis is a treatable condition. Therefore, we need to seek timely support from qualified healthcare professionals. Unless bone density is checked, the condition is usually diagnosed when fractures happen.
Even though osteoporosis does not show clear symptoms, professionals might observe symptoms of bone disorders such as skeletal pain, joint pain, back pain, sprains, infections, and overall weakness in the body.
Medical professionals can diagnose bone disorders by using observation and measurement tools. Some indications are a change in posture, movement imbalances, weakening muscles, loss of height, swelling, and redness.
Besides blood and urine tests, family doctors and specialists also request various bone tests such as x-rays, MRI scans, CAT scans, radionuclide bone scans, bone densitometry, and biopsy.
As a preventative measure, I use annual DEXA scans, providing valuable information for bone, muscle, and fat profiles. However, DEXA scans are costly as they are not covered by Medicare.
Besides genetics, the literature indicates that bone disorders are caused by aging, nutritional deficiencies, lack of movement, side effects of medication, excessive toxins, cigarette smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, metabolic disorders, hormonal imbalances, and autoimmune conditions.
From a hormonal perspective, as informed by NIH, a condition known as hyperparathyroidism is well-documented yet underdiagnosed in patients. This condition is caused by an elevated concentration of parathyroid hormone in the blood, resulting in the weakening of the bones through loss of calcium.
Bone disorders and osteoporotic fractures are widespread. For example, according to NIH (National Health Institute), “each year, an estimated 1.5 million individuals suffer a fracture due to bone diseases.” The common culprit is falling and other accidents.
The NIH report highlights that “roughly one in four (24%) women age 50 or older fall each year, compared to nearly half (48%) of women age 85 or older; comparable figures for men are 16% and 35%.”
This Lancet report informs that “Globally, in 2019, there were 178 million new fractures (33.4% increase), 455 million prevalent cases of acute or long-term symptoms of a fracture ( 70.1% increase), and 25.8 million years lived with disability ( 65.3% an increase) since 1990.”
The most affected groups are aged 50 or higher but especially females. For example, according to WebMD, “women over the age of 50 are the most likely people to develop osteoporosis. The condition is four times as likely in women than in men.”
In addition, as pointed out by NIH, “some children and teens develop a rare form of idiopathic juvenile osteoporosis. Doctors do not know the cause; however, most children recover without treatment.”
Here are six tips to improve bone health and lower the risks of osteoporosis.
In this section, I cover critical factors affecting our bone health under five headings. I only focus on the essential items at a high level. I cover other items in the conclusion section with takeaway points.
I highlighted a few minerals and vitamins in this article. However, other micronutrients improving our metabolic health and hormonal balance might also indirectly affect bone health.
I provided the links to the nutrients I reviewed. I hope you might find them helpful: Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, and other nutrients that might help to improve metabolism and mental health.
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