4 tips to maintain strong bones

2018-03-28

Though we often think of them as tough and resilient, our bones are actually much more fragile than they appear. Read on to find out four ways to ensure your bones stay strong and healthy!

Advice Joints

Don’t neglect your calcium intake

Calcium is a critical element for our bones. This mineral salt is essential to bone growth during childhood, and also helps maintain bone mass throughout life. A lack of calcium is also known to increase the risk of bone fractures and osteoporosis, a skeletal disease characterised by significant loss of bone density.

In practice: Daily intake of calcium is recommended for maintaining the resilience of our bones, and for that, we need to consume calcium-rich foods such as dairy products, and take advantage of nutritional supplements. Many such products have been developed to prevent or correct a lack of calcium. Among them is the supplement Calcium Orotate available from the SuperSmart catalogue.

Prevent vitamin D deficiency

Vitamin D is another nutrient important for maintaining strong bones. It is involved in several stages of calcium metabolism: it enables calcium to be absorbed in the gut, helps it embed in the bones and prevents its elimination in the kidneys.

In practice: While vitamin D is therefore just as important as calcium for ensuring that our bones stay strong, deficiency is unfortunately widespread. In fact, the body needs exposure to the sun’s UV rays in order to produce this vitamin: without it, our vitamin D needs must be met through diet, by eating foods such as salmon, sardines and other oily fish. Deficiency can also be prevented or remedied by taking a vitamin D supplement.

Reduce your intake of salt, alcohol and caffeine

In contrast to vitamin D, some molecules are known to disrupt the metabolism of calcium. Among the worst offenders are caffeine and sodium which increase the loss of calcium via urine. Several recent studies have also emphasised the harmful effect of alcohol on the bones. Excessive alcohol intake has been reported to potentially lead to a loss of bone density, weakening the skeleton.

In practice: To maintain bone strength, it’s therefore a good idea to reduce consumption of alcohol, coffee, tea and caffeinated soft drinks. High-salt products should also be avoided, particularly ready meals which often have a high sodium content. Salt can be easily replaced in cooking by herbs and aromatics, some of which – basil and thyme for example – also contain substances beneficial for bone health.

Benefit from advances in science

Bone health is the subject of many scientific studies, with researchers focusing on solutions to preventing and treating osteoporosis. Affecting millions of people, this bone disease has a number of causes and can be treated in various ways: an anti-osteoporosis diet rich in calcium and vitamin D, nutritional supplementation, exercise programmes, the use of powerful active principles …

In practice: As a result of scientific advances, it is now possible to benefit from powerful active principles in order to maintain and improve bone density. With scientifically-proven efficacy, some of these substances are now available as dietary supplements. They include the bone-strengthening product Super Bone Formula which draws on the synergistic effects of several molecules: KoACT™, Fruitex-B™, strontium, organic silicon, menaquinone-7, vitamin D3, magnesium…

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Joints Advice