Securing bone health calls for early start

One of the most important factors in promoting bone health and preventing osteoporosis is making healthy lifestyle choices. Healthy lifestyle choices should begin as early as during pregnancy and should continue throughout the life span. The earlier that prevention measures are taken, the greater the benefit to bone health.

It is important for all individuals including those with a strong genetic tendency (family history) for osteoporosis to practice healthy lifestyle choices.
Osteoporosis is a medical condition in which the bones become brittle and fragile from loss of tissue, typically as a result of hormonal changes, or deficiency of calcium or vitamin D.

Practicing healthy lifestyle choices will help you reach your peak bone mass in youth and promote healthy bones in adulthood.
According to Dr Watmon Fredrick Nyero, a general practitioner at Friends Polyclinic in Kampala, the human skeleton is composed of 270 bones at birth.

The number decreases to 206 bones by adulthood after some bones have fused together. From childhood, the bones continue to grow until the age of 30 when bone development and density reaches a maximum.

Ensuring bone health

Lifestyle choices that may increase your risk for osteoporosis include lifelong low intake of calcium and vitamin D, lack of physical activity, smoking and excessive alcohol intake.

Effects of smoking
Smoking is bad for your overall health, including your bone health. If you are a smoker and decide to continue to smoke, you are taking the chance of developing osteoporosis and may be increasing your risk for fracture. Smoking directly affects your bone building cells and acts to decrease bone formation.

There is evidence, however, that quitting smoking is an important way to reduce hip fracture risk. In fact, women who stop smoking can cut their risk for hip fracture in half after five years of quitting.

Dr Nyero warns against smoking because it lowers oestrogen levels in both men and women. The hormone helps the bones to hold calcium and other minerals that make bones strong.

Alcohol intake
People who consume too much alcohol also tend to have poor exercise habits, poor nutrition, and an increased risk for falls and broken bones.

Dr Nyero says: “Alcohol interferes with calcium absorption by creating a barrier. People who drink a lot of alcohol usually have a poor diet that rarely contains calcium. This greatly exposes them to poor bone health.”

Ensuring bone health Take calcium, vitamin D
Calcium is a mineral that makes bone dense (thick) and strong. Vitamin D helps your body absorb and use calcium. Throughout your life, if your dietary calcium or vitamin D intake is too low, your body will withdraw the calcium it needs from your bones. Over time, if more calcium is taken out of your bones than is put in, the result may be thinner, weaker bones.

“Except for mal-development in the spine, a mother is literally responsible for poor bone formation of her baby caused by not eating foods rich in Vitamin D and Calcium,” says Dr Nyeko.

He adds: “The child must be fed on breast milk after birth because milk is rich in calcium. If a baby refuses to breastfeed or a mother does not have breast milk, the child must get milk and not juice or porridge to fill the calcium gap.”

Exercise
After peak bone mass is reached, physical activity plays an important role in maintaining bone mass. Exercise can also strengthen muscles and bones, improve posture, promote balance to prevent falls, and increase muscle mass to cushion bones in the event of a fall.

Dr Vincent Karuhanga, a general practitioner, warns that people with a high body mass index (BMI) higher than 26 risk damaging their knee and hip joint because too much weight is exerted on these joints. However, this does not put the extremely thin people at an advantage.

“Very thin people with a BMI less than 18 are prone to bone damage because they have a small body frame and they might have less bone mass at an early age,” he adds.

Food recommendations

For Calcium
These include:
• Raw milk
• Yogurt
• Broccoli
• Cheese
• Okra
• Green beans
For vitamin D
These include:
• Fatty fish, such as tuna, Tilapia and Nile perch.
• Foods fortified with vitamin D, such as some dairy products, orange juice
• Soy milk,
• Cereals.
• Liver.
• Cheese.
• Egg yolk.

EXPERTS SAY
Maintain healthy weight. Being too thin or too heavy can negatively affect bone health. Maintaining a stable weight, rather than repeatedly losing and regaining it, can help preserve bone density.

Avoid low calorie diets. Diets providing too few calories reduce bone density, even when combined with resistance exercise. Consume a balanced diet with at least 1,200 calories daily to preserve bone health.