Fighting Preventing Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis affects millions of people, primarily women worldwide. This disease is characterized mostly by backache, bone fracture from minor injuries from the spine, hip and wrist, curving of the spine and loss of height. The condition causes the bones in your body to lose calcium and minerals slowly over the years. The bones in your body are not afflicted with any disease, it just your bones have lost their density. Women are affected the most because they go through menopause and lose even more bone than normal as their body produces less and less estrogen making your bones brittle and easily broken aside from making you look shrunken or humped.

There are many ways to fight osteoporosis. Aside from taking multivitamins or calcium tablets, moving around helps a lot. Inactivity increases bone loss so engage in weight lifting exercises like walking, bicycling or even aerobics even for just 3 to 4 hours a week. But before doing any strenuous activity, consult your doctor or a fitness instructor for advice. Increase your calcium intake daily. Your body will absorb more calcium from foods rather than calcium supplements. Calcium rich foods like cheese, milk and dark leafy vegetables.

Avoid eating too much protein rich foods as these hampers the body’s ability to use calcium. Sunlight exposure also helps the body absorb calcium faster. Quit smoking since this will lower ones estrogen levels and drinking alcohol too much may affect the bones proper growth function. Drinking too much coffee can also strip away the bones calcium layer protection. Fluoride has also been found to protect not only our teeth but also our bones.