5 Tips to Support Your Bones & Joints

Do you know that every 3 second, there is an osteoporotic fracture worldwide? Our bones and joints are very important for our daily movement. As we age, the bone mineral density will decrease and the joint health will be affected which is causing many elderlies who experience joint pain or bone fracture in old age. According to the statistic, osteoporosis causes more than 8.9 million fractures worldwide and every 1 in 2 women above 40 years old which means approximately 50% of women above 40 years old are suffer from osteoporosis. So, how can we protect our bones and joints?

1. Healthy Diet

Maintaining healthy diet is a crucial step in protecting our bone health. Calcium is an important mineral which can improve the bone mineral density and therefore, reduce risk of osteoporosis. Our bones lose their density and become thinner as we age, it will then cause the porous bones and leads to higher risk of fracture. Increasing calcium intake could protect our bones from losing density. Besides Calcium mineral, Vitamin D, Magnesium and Zinc are good for our bone health too. Vitamin D could improve the Calcium absorption in our body. However, coffee is not advisable to take with your calcium source as caffeine will block the calcium absorption in our body.

2. Exercise

There are many people who may be avoiding exercise or too much extra movement due to joint pain but sedentary physical activity can cause joint pain or even make it worse. Exercise helps to build muscle and muscles take the load off of our joints. If we do not have enough muscle to support our body weight, our joints will take the hit instead. For people who work in office, if you usually sit for long periods of time, try to get up and move around once every couple of hours.

3. Weight management

Some people might be managing weight for better appearance, but weight management are also important for our bones and joints health. For underweight population, they are having higher risk of bone loss while for overweight population, their weight are causing extra stress on joints. Therefore, it will lead to higher risk of developing osteoarthritis. Therefore, it is important to maintain a healthy body weight to keep your bones and joints healthy.

4. Reduce smoking and drinking

Smoking and excessive alcohol consumption have many negative impacts towards health. Smoking has been proven to cause bone mass depletion and studies showed that smoking increase risk of osteoporosis and bone fracture. Besides, people with high alcohol consumption have been proven to have higher risk of having broken bones and brittle bones. Drinking interferes with the body’s ability to absorb vitamins and minerals. it also results in an increase in hormones that deplete bone density. Therefore, reduce alcohol intake and smoking could aid in reducing bone damage.

5. Posture

Maintaining a right posture is important to prevent joint damage which could restrict our movement, incorrect posture can lead to extra burden on joints and causing joint pain. Slouching puts extra pressure on your joints which can lead to back pain, neck pain or shoulder pain.