Good nutrition and regular exercise are essential for keeping your bones healthy throughout your life.
Exercise : Exercise can help you build strong bones and slow bone loss. Exercise will benefit your bones no matter when you start, but you'll gain the most benefits if you start exercising regularly when you're young and continue to exercise throughout your life.
Combine strength training exercises with weight-bearing and balance exercises. Strength training helps strengthen muscles and bones in your arms and upper spine. Weight-bearing exercises — such as walking, jogging, running, stair climbing, skipping rope, skiing and impact-producing sports — affect mainly the bones in your legs, hips and lower spine. Swimming, cycling and exercising on machines such as elliptical trainers can provide a good cardiovascular workout, but they don't improve bone health.
Protein : Protein is one of the building blocks of bone. However, there's conflicting evidence about the impact of protein intake on bone density.
Body weight : Being underweight increases the chance of bone loss and fractures.
Calcium : Men and women between the ages of 18 and 50 need 1,000 milligrams of calcium a day. This daily amount increases to 1,200 milligrams when women turn 50 and men turn 70. Good sources of calcium include:
Low-fat dairy products
Dark green leafy vegetables
Canned salmon or sardines with bones
Soy products, such as tofu
Calcium-fortified cereals and orange juice
Vitamin D : Vitamin D improves your body's ability to absorb calcium and improves bone health in other ways.
