Osteoporosis, Calcium & You

Osteoporosis is a bone disease that affects 50% of women over 55 and 20% of men. Osteoporosis, also known as brittle bone disease, is where bones have lost calcium and can become brittle and break easily.

What causes osteoporosis?

Osteoporosis has a number of causes.  These include lack of exercise, lack of calcium and lack of vitamin D. Below we look at some of the things that can play a role in osteoporosis and some of the things that you can do to help keep your bones healthy.

Exercise

We all know that exercise builds muscles but did you know that exercise also builds bone? As we get older, exercise helps us to maintain the bone that we have and can reduce our chances of developing osteoporosis. You need to do weight-bearing exercise to get the best benefit. Try:

• Brisk walking for your hip bones
• Pilates & yoga for spine and wrists
• Weight lifting for legs, wrists and spine

Calcium

Calcium is an essential part of your bones and is what gives your bone strength. We put calcium into our bones through our teens but as we get to 35 our bodies can start to take calcium back out. Getting a good amount of calcium from your food can slow down the amount of calcium lost from your bones.  Milk, hard cheese and yoghurt are great sources of calcium and we need 3 servings a day from these foods.

Did you know?

Dairy is one of the best places to get calcium. Although other foods can have calcium, the amounts are often much less than you would get from dairy - You would need to eat 16 servings of broccoli a day to get all of the calcium you need!

Vitamin D

Vitamin D helps your body to absorb calcium so it is really important for healthy bones. We are supposed to get vitamin D from sunshine but over the Winter months the amount of sunshine that we get in Ireland is too little for us to be able to make enough Vitamin D. Vitamin D is not found in many foods – salmon is a good source and there is some vitamin D in eggs.Many experts recommend a vitamin D supplement.

Phosphorus

Phosphorus is another mineral that is important for healthy bones.You will find phosphorus in meat, chicken and eggs as well as nuts, seeds and chocolate.

Vitamin D3 Tablets

Vitamin D3 Tablets