As you age, it is easy to begin to notice that your bone is getting weaker. Sometimes you could experience pain in the leg, back and some other parts of the body.
Sadly, the pain refuses to go away sometimes. When it does leaves with intake of drugs, it returns in few days.
Those who do more of sedentary life witness these pains more because they do not exercise the bone too.
This gradual weakness of the bone could be as a result of a condition called osteoporosis.
When this condition is present, it is easy for the patient to get bone fracture from minor incidents. Even the teeth could also be affected.
Fracture could come from sneezing, coughing and bending and it could be really, really troubling.
Interestingly, there are things you can do as you age to reduce the risk of coming down with this condition.
The first thing to look at are the things that you feed the body which houses the bones too.
1. Soft Drinks With Caffeine
One thing that you must begin to avoid as you age is taking carbonated drinks with caffeine.
These sweetened drinks really add no value to our health instead they remove from it.
A 2006 study highlighted that “intake of cola, but not of other carbonated soft drinks, is associated with low Bone Mineral Density (BMD) in women”.
Although not much is known about the effect on men, there are chances that it could also have little effect.
Alternatively, people (except diabetics) who want to drop soft drink addiction are advised to begin with trying out sweet fruits – pineapple, watermelon, citrus, coconut water.
The are good replacements that add so much value to your health.
2. Too Much Salt
Too much salt in our food is bad.
Every adult needs less than 5 grams of salt per day, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Eating excess salt could affect the calcium level in your body to the point that the calcium could fall short of what your body needs.
This low calcium level will then increase the chances of osteoporosis.
It is advisable that we stay within the limits and enjoy our meal in good health. From our constant chats with our clients we have realised that the taste bud could be trained to appreciate food with low salt.
All you need to do is to begin with gradual reduction of the quantity of salt that you eat.
Sometimes the excess comes from seasonings that we use, since 40% of some of them is salt.
Reducing the amount of the cubes you use will usher in an era of reversal of bone related issues.
You may find our article on Seasoning Cubes: Things You Don’t Know About Them helpful
3. Alcohol
Bone formation appears to be endless even as we age. And we need our bones to stay strong and age with grace.
It is not by mere birthday wishes that aging with grace comes. There is work to do.
Alcohol that is not properly moderated is bad for your health and your bone gets a share from it.
High level of alcohol consumption reduces bone formation, lowers bone mass and increases risk of fracture.
In a 2009 study that looked at the relationship between alcohol and osteoporosis, researchers found that persons who consume 0.5 to 1.0 drink per day have a lower risk of hip fracture.
Also, it highlights that there is a linear relationship between femoral neck bone density and alcohol consumption
It concluded that, although available evidence suggests a favorable effect of alcohol consumption on bone density, a precise range of beneficial alcohol consumption cannot be determined.
Reducing alcohol intake, therefore, will give everyone who does a better health.
4. Caffeine
You may wonder why we are repeating caffeine here. Yes! There are drinks that have caffeine and are considered as tea which you may also love. Reducing them as you age is a healthy decision to make.
Caffeine, which was identified earlier in cola drinks is the reason those drinks could affect calcium level.
Therefore, avoiding drinks with caffeine is a good decision that will bring value to your bones.
While these are helpful for persons with the condition, it is very important that diagnosis are performed to know if bone weakness is associated with some mineral deficiencies.
Kindly share with your friends and loved ones to enable them know how to avoid this triggers of osteoporosis.