How healthy are your bones?
Did you know that poor bone health affects one in two Australian women and one in three men over the age of 60?
Our bones are responsible for many of our body’s crucial functions, including movement, organ protection, production of blood cells, storage of minerals, and support for the rest of our body. If we look after our bones, we can minimise the risk of bone loss.
To take care of our bones we know that calcium, exercise and sunshine (vitamin D) are three of the most common components talked about for a healthy, strong skeleton. It’s also important to maintain a healthy weight, and that includes not losing too much as this could lead to low bone density and osteoporosis.
As well as staying in optimum shape and continuing to use your muscles and bones to maintain them, when it comes to bone health, there are other nutrients that are important for the integrity of your skeleton too. Here’s a list of them and how they help.
Vitamin C
Popular in combating colds, vitamin C is also involved in the production of the connective tissues that form the bone matrix or scaffolding. Some epidemiological studies have shown that in women over 45 years old, adequate vitamin C levels are required to help minimise loss of bone density.
Magnesium
As well as maintaining healthy bones, magnesium is also involved in both calcium metabolism and the body’s production of vitamin D.
Manganese
Required for normal bone growth and to help increase bone mass, manganese stimulates the activity of bone-building cells called osteoblasts.
Boron
This nutrient plays an active role in the body’s use of calcium and helps decrease its excretion.
Zinc
Enhancing vitamin D activity, zinc is also involved in some of the enzymatic processes involved in bone formation.
Copper
Another nutrient involved in bone formation.
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