How to Avoid Osteoporosis as We Age

When you hear the term osteoporosis, what do you think of? A little old lady hunched over and frail? It's not always so obvious as it is a silent disease - no symptoms until you break a bone!  We are told to drink our milk for strong bones and take our calcium supplements. Well, those recommendations may not have been the best. Keep reading to learn the latest functional medicine approach to bone health. 

Osteoporosis, meaning “porous bone”, is an extremely common disease –  1 in 2 women and 1 in 4 men will break a bone from osteoporosis in their lifetime. Approximately 10 million Americans have osteoporosis and another 44 million have osteopenia. 

Osteopenia is a condition where someone’s bone density is lower than the average person of the same age, but not quite as low as with osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is caused by the body making too little bone, losing too much bone, or both, creating an increased risk of fracture. The most common fractures include the hips, forearms, and spine. 

Osteoporosis occurs as we age with the risk of developing the disease increasing over time. The difficulty with osteoporosis is there are no symptoms – until you break a bone. This is why taking care of your bones and general health is so important.

So, how can we avoid osteoporosis and bone loss as we age?

First, let’s talk about the things to avoid that contribute to bone loss, or as I like to say “bone breakers”?

Bone Breakers include:

Smoking

Excess alcohol/caffeine

Poor diet

Lack of estrogen

Inflammation

Celiac disease

Stress

Oxidative stress

Medications - PPIs, steroids

Leaky gut/ Gut microbiome

Now, I want to tell you about the “bone builders” – things that you can do to improve your bone health.. 

Bone Builders include:

1. Healthy diet – Eating a whole foods anti-inflammatory diet with plenty of protein, fruits, and veggies will not only decrease your risk of developing osteoporosis, but is also so important to your general wellbeing. 

2. Weight bearing exercises like walking on hills, hiking, running, dancing, stair climbing, and resistance training will signal for your bones to strengthen. 

3. Vitamin D with K2 – Vitamin D and K2 are both involved in the regulation of calcium absorption and deposition to help strengthen bones.

4. Calcium – A necessary component of bone density and health. I will talk more about this later, but taking calcium supplements is actually not recommended!

5. Estrogen – Promotes the activity of osteoblasts, which are responsible for laying down new bone. This is why postmenopausal women have much lower bone density.

6. Stress management – High levels of stress and the stress hormone cortisol will keep us in a state of breakdown, which weakens your bones.

It’s well known that calcium is essential for bone health, but calcium supplements and cow's milk are not effective. In fact, the countries that consume the most cows milk and dairy products actually have higher rates of hip fractures!! Supplementation with calcium causes a quick spike in your blood calcium levels. And this calcium tends to be deposited in our arteries instead of our bones and puts us at risk for cardiovascular disease. Dietary calcium is absorbed slowly and the body can actually help deposit it in our bones where we want it. 

Rather than drinking a glass of milk or taking supplements, calcium should come from food. Dark leafy greens, almonds, seeds, canned bone in fish, and cruciferous vegetables are the best sources.

There are unavoidable factors that play into bone loss, like aging, sex, height and weight, and genetics. Still, there are plenty of factors that are well within our control. Focusing on minimizing the “bone breakers” and optimizing the “bone builders” will support your bone health as you age!