Natural
Medicine for Osteoporosis: Nutrients, Exercise, and a Healthy
Lifestyle
As
you age, it’s only natural that your body would tend
to be more fragile in all respects. Your bones are no exception
to the inevitable effects of aging. One of the expected
conditions of bone aging is osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is
a disease of bone tissue deterioration, usually after the
age of 50, leading to fragile bones and fractures. Osteoporosis
fractures are often seen in the spine, wrist, and hip, but
any bone can be affected by the deterioration of osteoporosis.
The best natural medicine for osteoporosis is optimizing
bone health at all times during your life, from youth to
old age.
Maintaining
bone health can be accomplished fairly easily, but this
natural medicine for osteoporosis only works when you diligently
follow a set of healthy lifestyle choices. Building strong
bones is a day-by-day process requiring commitment to the
following steps:
- Consume
enough calcium, vitamin D, and vitamin K
- Do
not smoke and avoid excessive alcohol
- Get
regular exercise, especially weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening
exercise
If
everyone followed the advice of natural medicine for osteoporosis,
it could help a multitude of people avoid this painful,
disabling disease. In the United States, about 8 million
women and 2 million men have osteoporosis. Another 34 million
are thought to have low bone mass. Women are particularly
susceptible to osteoporosis because they can lose up to
20 percent of their bone mass within 7 years after menopause.
Getting
the correct amount of calcium, vitamin D, and vitamin K
is an important part of natural medicine for osteoporosis.
It is generally recommended that people over the age of
50 should get 1,200 mg of calcium a day and 400 IU of vitamin
D per day. Over the age of 70, vitamin D intake should increase
to 600 IU a day. Vitamin K deficiencies are rare but you
should ensure you consume enough vitamin K by eating plenty
of spinach, cabbage, other green leafy vegetables, soybeans,
and cereals.
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